In kindergarten on Valentine's day my dearly beloved teacher (I really did think she was an angel) took us to the back of the room one at a time while everyone was coloring to help us "deliver" our Valentines to the correct little mailbox that we'd made a few days before and which now sat on the counter in the back. (can you say RUN-ON?) We delivered all of mine and my teacher got very upset and started yelling at me, "What? That's only 13. Where are the rest of your Valentines? How do you think those kids will feel who don't get a Valentine from you!?! You HAVE to bring a Valentine for EVERY child!" This rang through the entire, silent classroom.
I'm pretty sure not ONE of the kids who didn't get a Valentine from me felt 1/100th as bad as I did after that.
Or this one:
On my first date at Ricks College, after a fun Hawaiian themed dinner, I went with a few couples to one of the empty buildings in the evening and we had some kind of race or scavenger hunt around the building (maybe it was hide and seek or something) in three-legged form. As in, my right leg was tied to the left leg of this guy that I really liked but hardly knew at all and we ran around the building up and down stairs etc. For me at that point anything extremely hilarious + kind of embarrassing =ed disaster. I peed my pants. I pretended like I hadn't and when we all met up at the end I announced that I needed to go home for a second, and told my friend aside what had happened.
I ran home to change my clothes so we could go to get ice cream for the next part of the date. While I was there the phone rang. It was my dad. He asked how I was doing and I told him that I was in the middle of this awesome date, except I was at home now changing my clothes because of this embarrassing happening. He laughed and said, "It sounds like you're having a good time." Then he tried his best to transition smoothly into giving me the news that my grandpa had just died. My first grandparent to go.
That was pretty bad. And then when all of the people in our date group came to the apartment I learned that they all knew about my accident (Thanks Melissa! Actually, I wasn't too embarrassed, since I'm really practical like that. Who cares, right?) For some weird reason I decided to go get ice cream with them anyway. It was a bad idea because I sort of put a damper on everything. My date totally endeared himself to me, though with his super awesome concern etc. He was (and I'm sure still is) a really neat guy.
So, yeah. That's why I'm not writing about things from my past today. (Oh, wait. . . Whatever.)
Instead I'll write about something else I've been planning to write for a long time. COMPLIMENTS!!
Do you have compliments from your past that stick in your mind. Do you ever pull them out when you need a little boost? Can you think of a few that really stand out?
I can! (I'm such a dork)
I'm going to share some of mine with you, and then I would LOVE to hear some of yours in the comments if you'll share. If not (in which case: why not!?!) I encourage you to think about them for yourself at least, anyway. Here they are, on subjects that I think we all get compliments on.
On Physical Appearance:
Senior year of high school. I came home for lunch before rushing off to work as always. My mother was home alone, as usual, but she had a woman from our ward there working on her hair. This woman was a beautician and her sister was a model and they were both sort of in the business. When I came into the room she said, "Wow! Have you ever thought about going into modeling?" My mother responded with, "Oh, because of her long legs and slender frame?" and the lady said, "Well, I was thinking mostly because of her eyes and teeth!" (I was such a teenager to let this stick with me for so long)
On Brains:
I had said something about how dumb I was (I don't do this anymore) and a friend leaned over to 2 year old Ewelina and said, "I'd love to be as dumb as your mom!"
And once when we were dating Greg said something about how you could tell that I was smart by how I spoke or something. I had sort of thought of myself as a dumb blonde for some years, I think.
On Sense of Humor:
"You are a funny, funny girl." Repeated often by the roommate that I most admired for how hilarious she was (is).
On Polish Language Skills:
This is two days ago: "Sister Pawlik, you're a stud!" (um, thanks?) This from a missionary after the meeting wherein I had shared my testimony. He told me that he couldn't even understand half of what I said (he's been in Poland for like 4 months) I assured him that none of the Poles could understand what I said either.
So you see how easy I am to please. Now tell me why YOU'RE so awesome. (as if I don't already know) Maybe yours will be less superficial than mine. Maybe it is something you overheard someone saying about you (those are the best compliments, the ones you're not intended to hear). Just tell me something! (please)
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