"It Didn't Go Well"

My five-year-old son is at summer camp on the beach. On the first week, the kids took swim tests to determine if they needed to wear a swim vest in the water. My son came out on the side of... swim vest.

The next week, he asked the counselors if he could try again.

That evening, as we walked around the neighborhood, he told me about the second swim test and ended his story with, “It didn’t go well.”

What struck me about this interaction with him was that he said those four words without a hint of disappointment or sadness. There was no, “I’m bad at swimming” or “I hate swimming” or even, “I need to get better at swimming.” No shame, defensiveness, or negative self-judgment.

Just raised eyebrows, a slight smile, and a matter-of-fact, “It didn’t go well.”

At some point in my young life, I absorbed the message that not being great at everything was a problem I needed to spend my life solving. My son is showing me that… maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s actually just kind of amusing.

Here’s to summer, and to swimming (with a vest!),
Lindsey