The Important Lesson I Learned From a Childhood Journal

about trying new things, embracing change, and enjoying life

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher started sending parent-journals home with us.

As kids who could barely read, we unwittingly carried the journals back and forth – our parents documented our experiences at home, and our teacher relayed her observations from school. It was an exercise designed to get a dialogue going with parents – to keep them informed about their child, but also to gain insight into who we were, and what made us tick outside the classroom.

I stumbled into this journal a few years ago while I was flipping through a folder of old primary school stuff.

It was brilliant.

How often do you get to read unfiltered first-hand observations about the kind of person you were as a 6-year-old? One of my favourite entries by my teacher excitedly describes my passions of the day:

That Levi never did appreciate a good piece of china.

The pleasant, positive comments about little “Obie” were amusing, but I quickly became much more interested in the neutral or occasionally concerned observations.

In another entry, my teacher notes my tendency to prefer watching activities rather than actively participating in them (tea parties being the exception, obviously).

This seemingly innocent comment hit me harder than anything else I read.

In my early twenties, I started to become aware of the fact that I was reluctant to try new things. At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal.

“I’ll give it a shot next time,” was a common response when faced with an invitation to try something outside my norm. “I just don’t…

Related posts:

The following article was written by J. Rachel West, Vice President and Marketing & Events Manager at Westminster Business Consultants (WBC). A few weeks ago, Westminster Business Consultants (WBC)…

Artificial intelligence is slowly beginning to have an impact on our society. The technology becomes increasingly better, people who’ve tried VR are surprised as to how real it is, some are scared…

So I am due with the next episode of my #efjourney, the one where after policy discussions in DC, I met several dedicated NGO advocates, social workers, lawyers, community organizers in Philadelphia…