My mama always says, “If you can read, you can learn anything.” And I absolutely believe that to be true. Literacy is EMPOWERING… but reading comprehension has always been a struggle for me.
I was an excellent reader as a kid. Very capable of sounding out words, enunciating well, pacing well. But I couldn’t tell you what all of those words meant when you put them together. So, for the longest time, I thought I didn’t like reading simply because I couldn’t understand the words on the page. The only books I enjoyed were comic books (probably because the illustrations helped me piece together what was truly happening in the story.)
One day, I finally found a novel I enjoyed, so I put all my effort into understanding it. And the more I practiced, the better I became at comprehending. And the more I comprehended, the more I realized: I LOVE reading.
To this day, it’s still a struggle sometimes, but reading is one of my greatest joys. I may have to put more effort into reading than other people do, but it’s 100% worth it.
Over the years, I’ve met many people who’ve given me the usual lines of “I’m just not good at art” and “I can only draw stick figures” and “it’s just too hard for me.” These phrases uphold the idea that we can only be good at or enjoy the things that come naturally to us.
And I want to challenge that mindset.
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe we’ve all been given gifts that are intuitive to us. For some it’s music, others it’s baking. For some it’s fishing or painting or embroidery. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing the things that come more naturally to us.
But I want to challenge the idea that we can’t enjoy or pursue the things that don’t come naturally to us. Just because you aren’t a pro right off the bat doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the process of exploring a new hobby. Just because it takes you longer to learn a concept doesn’t mean that concept isn’t worth it to learn. And sometimes the joy is even a little sweeter when the path was harder to take.
What’s one thing you’ve told yourself you can’t do? What’s one small step you can take toward challenging that mindset today?