A lesson learnt from a five year old

“Now all the participants will come one by one to the centre stage and introduce themselves”, the teacher announced. It was a class presentation by the students of class UKG, the parents were very elated seeing their kids performing on the stage for the very first time, I was one of them. But soon after the teacher’s announcement my heart started pounding. It was not because that my daughter was shy or she didn’t have the confidence to speak up in front of the audience. I was worried because of her height, she was too short as compared to her fellow class mates. The microphone was placed centre stage and was adjusted according to the average height of the students. And I knew that she cant reach the microphone.

It was a regular affair for me to hear comments about her delayed growth and short height. Initially I tried to give an explanation to everyone that she is not having any medical issue, it’s just because of the genes. But people, they don’t hear you. They will just make such remarks and if you get hurt that’s your issue not theirs. Even they keep saying such harsh (negative) things in front of the kid. Though she was just 5-year-old but grown up enough to understand that people are pointing out at her. I had always tried to remind my daughter of her strengths, told real life stories of people who did exceptionally well despite of their shortcomings, whenever she felt affected by these people.

But that day, I was scared like hell. And I was praying inside that before her turn someone should come and adjust the microphone to her reach.

The introduction session started, one of the student came and introduced herself, and the hall got filled with clap sounds. But my mind couldn’t hear anything, with each passing second my heart beat was getting faster. And then came my little angel, she reached the centre stage, grabbed the microphone with one hand, lowered it fully, went on her toes and very confidently & clearly said, “My name is Soumya Shrivastava”. And one more time the hall was filled with clap sounds, but this time the sound was almost double while one of them was trying hard to control her tears, and it was me.

That day I learnt a lesson from my little princess, there is always a solution even to the impossible things. One just need to focus on the strengths and not the weakness, make it most of the things that you have rather than blaming the things you don’t have. And most importantly, it is us… the adults who see things as problems and difficult situations, these kids are way smarter than us. They don’t treat problems as problems, and always finds a way out.