My wish for you...

I was looking back at the girls baby books. There was a question in them... What is your wish for your child? I answered the standard answer... that they be happy and fulfilled, and while I still hope that they be both of those things my ultimate wish that I think will help them be most successful and happy has changed. I want both of you to be nice. I want you to know the difference between being well-liked and being popular. There is a definite difference. Being popular infers that you are somehow superior to someone else. I spent way too much time trying to be popular when I should have spent more time just being nice. Not that I wasn't a nice person but to be popular you often have to go along with the crowd and make some decisions you might not have made if you really looked at the impact on everyone else besides yourself. Being universally well-liked because you are truly a nice person will serve you much better in life. Will you still get dealt lemons... yeah of course... but your ability to spin a positive outlook on it will be better. Will you have people take advantage of you? Yes you most likely will... but you will have many more people that look up to you, love you, and want to help you because you have been a positive light in their life. As I type I am thinking back to my own high school years. There are two girls in particular that stand out because they were TRULY nice people. They still are incredibly nice good people. I am so blessed that through all of my shenanigans in high school I was able to get to know them because of my dance team. I believe they both read my blog and I hope they know how much I appreciate them and look up to them. When you think back on your high school years... was your Prom Queen the most popular girl in school or the most well-liked? Often it would be the first but my senior year it was so amazing to see the nicest girl in school get it. She is such an inspiration to so many. Along with her best friend I have never heard either of these women, even when they were girls, say something bad about someone. They are the first to celebrate your happy moments and the first to send a prayer in your times of need. When I think about what I want for my girls... It's not for them simply to be happy but for them to be nice... for everyone around them to feel better about their world because they were in it... because that is how they make me feel every moment I spend with them!