Extraordinary

A little girl went up to her mother and asked, “Mom, kids at school always say that I am weird for liking bugs and dinosaurs and rocks, they say that’s boy stuff. Why do they say that?”

Her mother thought for a moment. She remembered that when she was a kid, children were mean and said she could never become a dancer and she let that discourage her. She looked into her daughter’s big blue eyes, so innocent and fragile, unaware of how cruel the outside world is. “The kids who say that do not know how extraordinary you are. And do not let anyone tell you that you cannot do something, because I know you can.”

Her daughter stood there for a minute thinking about what her mother had said. She looked back at her mom and replied, “So they are just jealous of my bug friend and dinosaur poop?”

Her mom just laughed. 

Years later the child asked her mother why kids called her weird.

Her mother looked at her daughter, remembering the last time her daughter had come to her with the same question. She replied, “Because they do not understand how extraordinary and spectacular and wonderful you are. And do not let anyone tell you that you cannot do something, because I know you can.”

The daughter looked her mom straight in the eyes and said, “So they think I’m weird because they aren’t as cool as me because they don’t have a pet caterpillar going through metamorphosis?”

“Yep.”

This same cycle happened all through her life until the one day it stopped. Her mother had died, and the daughter was alone, no one to comfort her, no one to tell her how extraordinary she was or say I love you. 

She was all alone. 

She sat down by her mom's grave and thought about every time her mother had said how extraordinary she was. She sat there for a while thinking about her mom. Her mom was the happiest and most loving and kind person in the world. 

Years later, when the daughter became older and close to the age that her mother had passed, she still missed her mother dearly. She still had memories of her mother and what she used to tell her when she felt down, “You’re extraordinary and spectacular and do not let anyone tell you that you can’t do something, because I know you can.” Those words had still stuck with her for the rest of her life.