When I was ten years old, my friend asked me if I wanted to play on her softball team. I thought it would be so cool to be on a team….I also remember thinking these exact thoughts:
“I haven’t ever played softball….I don’t know if I can do it….everyone else has been playing since they were 5…I’m going to look like an idiot…I don’t have all the right stuff…I don’t know all of the rules…I don’t know ANY of the rules….”
Despite my worries, my angel mother helped me get all signed up and everything worked out. I know those worries seem silly when you’re an adult and you know know they’re coming from a 10-year-old….because you can look at that 10-year-old and say all of the adult things you know….
But have you ever had 10-year-old girl worries? The ones that sound like this:
“What do I know? Everyone else probably already knows everything. And they probably all have natural talent, which is why they’re all so much better than me. I probably couldn’t measure up. I probably shouldn’t even try. They’re all ahead of me anyway, I’ll never catch up.”
As if it’s some kind of contest or race. Easier to tell that to some 10-year-old than to the aging woman in the mirror, right? Or is it just me?
Do you know how old Julia Child was when she learned how to cook? You know who Julia Child is, right? She’s known all over the world…she’s famous for her cookbooks, her expertise, her passion for good food and her ability to make complicated recipes understandable.
Julia Child didn’t start cooking when she was 9, like you might think. Or roast her first chicken at 13. She didn’t intuitively know how to braise or saute or even chop and dice. She learned it.
Julia Child enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu (a cooking school in Paris) in 1949. She was born in 1912, so that would make her 37. She was 37 when she decided she wanted to learn to cook….with all the learning still in front of her.
She went to Le Cordon Bleu for one year and…get this…FAILED her test at the end of the year. She waited an entire year to re-take the test, which she did and this time she passed. Thus began her very long and very successful cooking career…at 40. (Side note: she was 36 when she decided to learn French…and enrolled in a French class. Awesome.)
Is your mind blown? But really….
Of course a 37-year-old lady can learn to cook, even if she never has before.
Of course a 10-year-old can learn to play softball….
And of course a 5-year-old or a 72-year-old Brave Girl can learn to make art….
….or play the piano, or grow a spectacular garden, or ride a horse, or swim the backstroke, or build a treehouse, or love somebody, or host a party, or sew a dress, or start a business, or speak in public, or write a book and all of the other millions of things there are to do in this world.
I didn’t come here to talk about Julia Child…..Brave Girls Club doesn’t even offer cooking classes (yet!)…..what I’m here to tell you is that whatever that “thing” is for you…YOU can learn it.
It’s not a mystery, it’s not impossible, it’s just something to learn.
For instance….music is a big deal in our family, and when a song seems hard or a part seems hard, one of my brothers always says, “It’s just an illusion…it’s not that hard.” And he’s right! Musicians perform perfectly because they’ve practiced and practiced and practiced and earned the ability to play complicated music….but every single one of them had to start at the beginning….every one of them sang a note or strummed a chord for the very first time, then just kept playing, kept singing, kept trying, hit a LOT of wrong notes and kept going before they got it. EVERYTHING is that way! LIFE is that way!
Brave Girl Art School started on Monday….and my kids (3 and 5) have been sooo excited to start. We took these photos on their very first day….
Maybe it’s because I was that apprehensive 10-year-old, but it makes my heart absolutely sing to see my little ones learning how to do art. Maybe they’ll learn earlier than I did that you don’t have to know everything from the very beginning. You don’t have to have some innate inclination toward art or music or gardening or baseball to be able to do it well and enjoy it. Maybe they’ll be daring and adventurous and unafraid of new things. Maybe they’ll never say those sad words, “I am not creative” and “I can’t do that”.
Maybe what they’ll grow up saying is, “I’m gonna learn that.”
I want to know: what is something you’ve always wanted to learn? Then what I want to know is what is your plan for learning it? (You don’t have to learn it today, but no excuses allowed!)
And if you ever wanted to learn to paint or draw or doodle or make jewelry or sew pillows or make pretty decorations for your home or if you ever wanted to see the pure JOY on your children’s faces as they learn to do any of those things, come join us for SUMMER ART SCHOOL!!! Let’s LEARN it!!
