Lessons From a Young Kid

I saw Giggles hopping around today. Compared to when she was born four days ago, she had more strength in her legs and was energetic as ever. I moved to say Hi, but then her mother got skittish, ran away and she followed. Watching that just brought something to my mind.

Just Incase you’re wondering who Giggles is. Giggles is the goddaughter of my favourite goat, Helen. I haven’t gotten around to naming her mother. When Giggles was a few hours old and still struggling to walk, she let me touch her. At one point, she raised her leg to try and touch me too.

Her mother, ever so timid despite being the eldest ran away, leaving Giggles at my mercy. But I had no intention of harming any of them.

Giggles was two days and a few hours old when we had our second interaction. Her mother wasn’t close, so she was more curious than scared of me. She let me touch her and rub behind her ears. She began to sniff me, I think she was looking for milk.

But then on the fourth day, today, Giggles saw me and took off. Why? The answer was obvious. She saw her mother doing it. Something just came to my mind. This is how the world learns today. How people learn. How children grow. They grow up watching and listening to their environment which either boosts or stifles them.

I thought, Giggles won’t have cause to be afraid of me if her mother didn’t always take off at the sight of me. Helen isn’t scared of me. Neither is Johnbosco. But Giggles doesn’t belong to either of them, her mother is who she watches.

I caught the revelation, all over again from watching this kid, that fear like everything is taught and learned. Once again, I learned that everything can be relearned. Even though I know this, I am at the point in my life where I needed to realize it all over again.

I have had to relearn a lot of things. You see, the world is filled with so many distractions and voices that it gets so hard to fully focus on the voices within. Our parents taught us fear. Fear of the future, fear of the unknown and fear of situations. We have learned to fear everything to the point that many of us now believe fear is being careful even if we miss opportunities in the process.

One of the things I resolved to do this year is to reinvent myself. To relearn and to unlearn. This was why I signed up myself for new things. I realised that there is really no right time to begin a thing. You create that time.

Just like Giggles, I learned to be very “careful” in all my dealings at a very young age. Fear is paralyzing and most times we don’t even notice how static we are because we’re too busy being careful. We fear things, people, places and situations. But the truth is we need these. We need people. We need to be exposed. We need situations that test us. That’s why we are humans. Life becomes boring when there is no growth.

Watching Giggles run away from me brought a smile to my face because I learned something. I learned that I was growing - learning, relearning and unlearning. I face challenges every now and then but there is always a solution. An opportunity comes knocking. That opportunity is always a blessing in disguise.