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goingonhope
MyPTSD Pro
......Just some Inspiring Readings
We All Have A Unique Voice . . . You Just Have to Find Yours
BY J.L. GREEN
My mother was always timid and shy, having grown up with a father and sister who drummed into her head that she was stupid and unattractive, that she had nothing worthwhile to say, and even if she did, she wouldn't know how to say it. So for too many years, she buttoned up.
It didn't help that her husband (who would become her ex) was much like her father, reinforcing her fears of lacking anything of note to contribute.
But something happened when my mother turned 50. One day at work, my mother piped up about a movie she'd just watched again, the popular "Close Encounters of the First Kind," or was it "The Wizard of Odd." And something happened when her fellow secretaries heard this. They laughed. Not at her but with her. And it wasn't the last time that would happen.
The waitresses at her neighborhood diner made sure her cup of decapitated coffee was always full because in return they got a laugh. And my mother got a life. She wasn't humiliated, she wasn't humbled—she was human and humorous and in demand! She was playing her own circuit, from the workplace to the auto repair shop, from the dry cleaners to the dinner engagements she now accepted.
Her malapropisms did not diminish, but they no longer defined her in a negative way. They were uniquely hers. Her confidence grew. We all have a voice, she learned, we just have to find it—and embrace it.
We All Have A Unique Voice . . . You Just Have to Find Yours
BY J.L. GREEN
My mother was always timid and shy, having grown up with a father and sister who drummed into her head that she was stupid and unattractive, that she had nothing worthwhile to say, and even if she did, she wouldn't know how to say it. So for too many years, she buttoned up.
It didn't help that her husband (who would become her ex) was much like her father, reinforcing her fears of lacking anything of note to contribute.
But something happened when my mother turned 50. One day at work, my mother piped up about a movie she'd just watched again, the popular "Close Encounters of the First Kind," or was it "The Wizard of Odd." And something happened when her fellow secretaries heard this. They laughed. Not at her but with her. And it wasn't the last time that would happen.
The waitresses at her neighborhood diner made sure her cup of decapitated coffee was always full because in return they got a laugh. And my mother got a life. She wasn't humiliated, she wasn't humbled—she was human and humorous and in demand! She was playing her own circuit, from the workplace to the auto repair shop, from the dry cleaners to the dinner engagements she now accepted.
Her malapropisms did not diminish, but they no longer defined her in a negative way. They were uniquely hers. Her confidence grew. We all have a voice, she learned, we just have to find it—and embrace it.