Little

In 2nd grade I had a giant crack down the middle of my desk. It was awkward because neither side of the crack was wide enough for a whole piece of paper. And so the crack often made my handwriting look really messy. And I'll be honest - I didn't exactly excel in handwriting anyway. I liked to write quickly (still do), and that doesn't always go well with writing neatly.

But one time we were writing a list of words for something. And I decided to take my time and go really slowly to write neatly. I remember the first word: little. I worked really hard and wrote it perfectly. You've never seen the word "little" written more precisely in your whole life.

My teacher was walking by, and she often encouraged me to work on my handwriting. So I motioned her over and pointed to the word. "Look how neat I wrote that!" I said.

"Look how small you wrote that," she replied with a frown as she walked away. And I had written some pretty small letters, it was true. But I felt so discouraged that I'd worked so hard and written so neatly, and all she could see was the negative. And really, I was showing the meaning of the word in how I wrote it!

Negative words carry a lot of weight. 18 years later I still think of that day when someone says they can't read my handwriting. I wonder if I'd have neater writing now if my teacher had said something more like, "Wow! That's so neat! See if you can write it like that but a little bit bigger." For most criticisms, there's usually an encouraging way to say them.