The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXX

Estelle Lawrence
Merrill Hawkins, Teacher
The Park School
People say courage is being brave, and it is doing something that you don’t
want to do. I think that courage is understanding yourself. It is knowing
what scares you and reaching for more. It’s reaching for the impossible and
making it possible. I think courage is having a weakness and making it into a
strength. Everybody has disabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. I was born with
dyslexia, and I have hated it for a long time. I thought that I could not achieve
as much. I thought it was something holding me back. But now that I think
about it, without dyslexia there would be a piece missing because dyslexia
is not a weakness, but a strength. I might not read as well or as fast as some
people, but it is not how fast you read or understand something, it is how you
incorporate these learning experiences into your life, without being ashamed.
One day at school my teacher was asking for someone to read something
aloud. I could have kept quiet, sat in my chair and waited for someone else
to get called on. But I thought, so what if I mess up? I’m really going to waste
my whole life just waiting for the perfect moment and avoid reading out loud
forever? If I don’t face my fear now, how am I supposed to face my fear in the
future? So I raised my hand.
“Yes, Estelle,” my teacher said. Of course, she could have picked anyone in
my class, but she had to pick me. My heart skipped a beat. In my head all I
could think was what if I mess up, what if people laugh at me? Am I even good
enough? In that moment while all of these thoughts were running through my
head there was a little part of me saying, “You can do this. So what if you mess
up. There are only fifteen people.”
And that’s exactly what I did. I might have read a few words incorrectly. I
might have not read fast. But who cares? I believed in myself and I didn’t let
anything stop me.
Courage is a word. It has seven letters and four vowels. So why is it that it is so
important? Courage is a mood, a feeling, a thought, a spirit. There is so much
in the world that we can’t control. Courage isn’t about doing everything, but
about doing the right things at the right time. Dyslexia is part of me that I
can’t see myself living without.
The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond
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