Not to Brag, but... #MFRWauthor #BlogHop

Hello!

This is week 46 of the 52-Week MFRW Author Blog Challenge, and the topic today is:

Let Me Brag for a Minute...

Sorry to say this, but as a Catholic, this particular personality trait was beaten and shamed out of me from an extremely early age.

I do remember one time during a job interview for a Bank, I had to drive downtown (Detroit) and had the sadly mistaken impression that it would be where I'd be working... in that building, in downtown Detroit -- two things that super-appealed to me at that time.

I was upbeat, excited, and eager to impress (I think), and while I don't remember anything I said, I will always remember the interviewer smiling at me and saying, "Wonderful! I love the way you beat your own drum to such a down-to-earth rhythm!"

Now, as mentioned above, my initial reaction was, "OMG, I just blew it! She thinks I'm bragging!"

Because, as stated, bragging has always been a bad thing to my rigidly molded mind.

I left that interview in an opposite state of mind and practically wept all the way back home, but as I walked into the house, the answering machine was flashing, and it was the Bank telling me I was hired!

Yay!

However, it wasn't for the downtown branch but another one about 25 miles north in an uppity suburb.

Boo.

Bragging, for me, is a double-edged sword and I won't likely ever change my mind about it... at least not for myself and to a lesser extent, others.

On the one hand, just contemplating a brag about myself conjures up tons of angst and fear, thinking I'll be perceived as someone with a huge head who has a way, too large opinion of myself.

And, when others brag, I think that same thing about them.

However, I also experience a twinge of envy, wishing I had the guts and mentality to feel at least SOMETHING great about myself... great enough to want to tell others how special I am at at least one thing.

... to be able to feel good about something I've done without the mental burden of knowing I'm not being humble.

The envy extends to wondering about the bragger's mindset and attitude about not only themselves but life in general.

I sometimes wish I could be more assertive, confident, and honest(?) about myself and my true feelings the way so many others seem to be, and without shame or hesitation.

Sometimes being the key word.


Working as a teacher today gives me a third reason to like/despise braggers/bragging, and that is the simple yet all-too-real fact that 99.9% of kids auto-believe they are the greatest thing ever and that everyone, stranger or otherwise, believes it as well.

Entitlement and Self-Worth are two separate things yet closely related in social settings.

A child who brags about knowing the answers to questions is CUTE and no one really wants to say or do anything to discourage it.

A child who tells his teacher unabashedly that he can get his mom to come to the school and beat up the teacher because he was told no one can tell him what to do because he is infallible, special, and above the law isn't.

So, here is my idea of a BRAG (cringe)

The other day while working in a 3rd Grade classroom, I was attempting to instruct a group of students in Math(s) when one of the girls started whining and "Teacher!" "Teacher!" "Teacher" 'ing me to irritating distraction.

I stopped instructing, (glared) at her, and asked her to kindly remain quiet while the teacher is speaking.

Completely ignoring me, she stood up and pointed at another girl and said, "She just called me stupid!"

To which (naturally) the accused cried out, "I did not!"

To which (naturally) the logical and age-appropriate "You did, too!" "I did not!" "You did, too!" "I did not!" ensued.

I asked them both to STOP! and as the entire class stared at me in wide-eyed shock, I calmly told the tattler that I couldn't exactly accuse the accused of being a liar any more than I could her.

The accuser made a sour face, stomped her feet, and proceeded to make a lot of noise searching her desk for a sheet of paper and a pencil.

I continued instructing the assignment when I saw her writing and asked her to stop and follow the lesson instead.

Another sour face, and: "I'm writing a letter to my mom! She told me to tell her any time someone is mean to me."

........................................................................................................................

Great, I thought and continued with the lesson minus our Miss Entitled.

Just as the lesson came to an end and the kids were going back to their desks to work, Miss Entitled 'borrowed' something from someone else's desk.

Huh!

With the tables now turned, her classmate was now doing to her the very thing she had done to another.

I smiled at Miss Entitled and asked, "Would you like me to write a letter to your mother and tell her that you were being mean to someone else?"

Here comes the brag

Not only did Miss Entitled realize how wrong she'd been, she proceeded to rip up her letter to her mother and then spent the rest of the afternoon being friendly to the girl she had accused of being mean to her.

Hurray for me, folks!

Just kidding... hurray for the girl who quickly (and, to me, shockingly) realized the error of her ways and did the RIGHT thing to correct it.

I was really happy for those two and could only hope that their feeling of accomplishment wouldn't wither away.

As the day came to an end, I made sure to single her out and told her to, instead, go home and tell her mother the truth... that she'd made a horrible mistake thinking she was better than others but learned her lesson and won't be treating others less-than anymore.

She actually smiled, said she would, and then gave me a squeezy-hug before she ran off.

As always, I appreciate it that you stopped by to read my entry.

Please make sure to scroll down to the LinkyLink tool and click on the next in line to read their post about a Bragging Right!