Taking it Small By Small

Hello Everyone,

I hope all is well with you all.

Okay so, my boss and I were walking back from a meeting earlier yesterday when she commended me. She said I did a good job with my presentation and I speak eloquently. I thanked her while thinking to myself: I have come a long way baby…

When I moved back to the U.S. after high school, my vocabulary was very poor. I spoke very good Basic English but that was it. My mentality was this – as long as I understood you and you me that was enough. No need for too much grammar. Until…

One of our family friends came to visit from Boston. We were catching up when my sister told him I was transferring into my undergrad college. He was so excited. Apparently he used to go there all the time for their parties. “I’m so jealous… That is THE party school… You’re gonna have so much fun” he said. Then he asked me, “Are you going to commute or do the dorms?” I smiled, crossed my legs and said “actually… I’m taking it small by small.” The dude looked at me as if I had 6 heads  before my sister told him I was moving into campus. Embarrassed, I went inside my room and stayed there until he left.When the rest of my family came home that evening, my 2nd sister filled them in on what happened and we LAUGHED! Although I had gotten over the embarrassment, I knew I never wanted to be in a situation like that ever again.

So I googled how to increase my vocabulary and started reading books. When I came across a word I didn’t know, I would look it up, learn how to pronounce it and try to use it correctly in a sentence. I also engaged in conversations with people I knew had an extensive (as opposed to avoiding them) and practiced, practiced, practiced! Fast forward to today, like I said, I’ve come a long way baby 😀

I write all this to say – if you’ve ever had a not-so-great or embarrassing moment, learn from it. Don’t act like it never happened and please, don’t dwell on it either. Instead,
· Relive the scenario,
· Tear it apart bit by bit,
· Find out what, how and why things went wrong
· Then work on ways to improve yourself so that doesn’t happen to you again.

Try not to waste too much time feeling embarrassed or angry. You will never be able to get that moment back, but if you work towards improvement; you will find yourself in a far better place and that event won’t matter anymore 😉

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

Love always,
The Wawa-New Yorker