The minute I put on that apron, my life changed. From first to seventh grade, I was insecure about myself. I don’t think I knew it at the time, but when I look back it was obvious. If people would make fun of me, I would always try to say something meaner to them. Then start chasing them around until my asthma kicked in and I couldn’t run any more. I felt like I had to retaliate and defend myself. I guess I thought if I tried to be nastier to them, they would stop picking on me.
I realized most kids feel insecure when they are young. They feel like everyone is looking at them negatively, judging them, and therefore, the majority of the time they feel self- conscious. They don’t understand that almost every other kid feels that way too. I needed to get to a point where I was comfortable in my own skin and I could laugh at myself. That happened to me during a bake sale to raise money for eighth grade graduation.
My mom asked me put on this pink and orange girlie apron to draw attention to the bake sale. She wanted me to stand there and encourage people to come and buy cupcakes and cookies. If she would have asked me to do that a week earlier, I would have looked at her and thought she was crazy. I mean, what would people say? What would people do? Would they laugh at me? Would they point at me? Would they talk about me behind my back? Up until that moment, those were things I spent time worrying about. But for some strange reason, I took that apron, put it on and said, “Sure what the heck?” I figured if I couldn’t laugh at myself, I was taking life too seriously. I realized I liked who I was and it was okay to laugh at myself. The funny thing was I found that if I could laugh at myself, kids saw me as being confident and secure. Thank goodness I put on that apron.