No Confidence in the Fourth Grade? Me Either!
Unshakable, Unbreakable, Unstoppable Stories
Making friends in a new school is tough, but it’s doubly tough when you are shy and unsure of yourself. I should know. When I was in the fourth grade, I started a new school.
I was a quiet kid with an active imagination. But when I went to school, I kept my imagination in check, talked only when the teacher called on me and quietly did my work.
My teacher liked me because I was quiet and did my work, but the other kids in the class called me the teacher’s pet. The fact that I had to wear a retainer to straighten my crooked front teeth didn’t help and made me feel self-conscious about the way I looked.
At lunch time, I would walk into the cafeteria with my head down so I wouldn’t see the popular girls pointing at me. I could still hear them, though. I could hear them whispering and giggling and making fun of my clothes or my hair or me.
They made me feel ugly and awkward and out of place. It’s hard to be confident in yourself when you feel that way.
I wanted to be able to walk into the cafeteria with my head held high and not wonder what people were saying about me. I wanted to be able to sit with the popular girls, wear stylish, cool clothes and fit in.
What I didn’t understand was that even though I wasn’t as pretty or popular or stylish as the cool crowd, I didn’t need to be beautiful to be confident. I didn’t have to let my crooked front teeth or my frizzy brown hair keep me from feeling confident about myself. I had the power to believe in myself no matter what I looked like.
What I didn’t realize was that the popular girls had to make fun of people like me so they could feel better about themselves because they had no real self-confidence either.
Still, it’s no fun being the social outcast. I went through my entire fourth grade year without making any friends. In the fifth grade, though, that changed.
A scary moment came early in the year when the teacher told us to trade papers and grade each other’s tests. I looked to my right and my left, but all the kids overlooked me and traded with each other. Then a girl a few desks over handed me her paper. Someone offered to trade with me!
I learned her name, started eating lunch with her and hanging out with her at recess. She was the first friend I made in that school, and we’re still friends today.
She didn’t care what I looked like, but she cared about me. I could be myself around her, and she could be herself around me. When you feel comfortable enough to be yourself around your friends, you start to believe in yourself and gain the confidence you need to do what you dream.
So don’t let the cool kids make you feel uncool. If you’re one of the cool kids, don’t judge people by their appearance. Whether you’re ‘cool’ or ‘uncool,’ you’re special because of who you are, not how many friends you have, what others think of you or how you dress.
Learn to believe in who you are, and that starts by discovering your strengths. When you learn what you’re better at than anyone else, that is the foundation of your unshakable confidence.
To Your Dreams,
Bonnie Jean
P.S. Please don’t wait as long as I did to find your unshakable confidence! Life is really much more fun when you set goals and take action to make them happen. No matter how old you are, you can be an unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable Dream Doer today! To help, I want to give you three FREE gifts, which includes the entire audio book of The Dream Doers and the Summer of Secrets. To claim your FREE gifts, visit TheDreamDoers.com now.
