What my Dad Taught me when I was 12
What you carry with you
I hated school.
I didn’t enjoy most things about it. It sucked for me for the most part. From being bored most of the time, to bullies, to teachers, to those silly yearly sports events.
In my final year of Primary School, I had a bit of a problem with a teacher.
I was physically petrified of her.
She would scare the hell out of me!
Sometimes I wouldn’t be able to do her work because I was too scared to get the work wrong and be screamed at. This kind of attitude and feeling was reflected in my grades.
My Dad didn’t appreciate laziness or bad grades, so after a lecture on pulling up my socks and few threats about taking away my TV privileges (which is how my Dad parented), he asked me what was wrong, and through a waterfall of tears I told him about my teacher.
After an argument with my Mom about how my Dad should handle this entire situation, which for my Dad normally meant lots of screaming at the teacher, I’m pretty sure my Mom won this argument.
Afterwards, my Dad sat me down and gave me the best and most impactful, for better or worse, life lesson ever:
“At the end of the day my boy, everyone has to take a shit”
It was this statement that would almost reset the way I saw people around me.
It seems ridiculous, but that statement for me made me realise that no one could expect anything more from me other than what they were capable of themselves or visa versa.
The Teacher, became human, normal, nothing.
My fearful element was reduced to nothing more than a natural process.
It made me realise that everyone was human, everyone was like me, and such, couldn’t be anything more than just another normal human, with their own problems, lives and issues. Like me. (This is also probably why I have an authority problem)
My fear was gone.
No one has the power to have power over you, you give them that power, you let them have it over you, you also have the power to let nothing have power over you.
Everyone has to take a shit.
As a young twelve year old, my teacher by default had power over me, whether she was right or wrong. Until that faithful evening with my Dad with a basic piece of advice that sometimes we forget in life, in work and our day-to-day.
You have the power, you have the choice of with whom you share it with.
If you enjoyed this story, it would mean a lot to me if shared it!
Checkout my blogs: www.milled.co.za or www.joburgbrew.com
