“Confidence is not loud. It comes quietly, stitched together by each victory, whether big or small.”
-Carol Williams
I've written about some of this before, so I hope I don't bore my regular readers as I write this post for the July Challenge. But, I promise you'll learn something new about me before the end.
As a child, I was so shy that I dreaded saying "here" during roll call in grade school. It sounds ridiculous, but for a painfully shy girl growing up with early personal loss, even that simple word felt like too much attention.
After our parents died, my aunt and uncle became the guardians of my brother and me. My aunt, a 4-H leader, decided 4-H would be a good program for us to get involved in. It wasn't like I had a choice; she signed me up for the sewing and knitting clubs and expected me to participate. At the time, I was more afraid of her than trying something new, so I just did what she said.
Little did I know that participating in 4-H would change my life.
After that first year, I joined a couple of other clubs, so besides sewing and knitting, I was in a Forestry and Water Safety program: I don’t remember my very first sewing or knitting projects, but I do remember the later, more complex ones. I also remember collecting samples of cones and needles from the forest, identifying them, taking them home to press and dry (which is a whole process in itself), then placing them in a neatly organized project notebook, with descriptions. I even learned the scientific names of the trees I collected from. The only scientific name I remember now is the name for Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Here is how to pronounce it phonetically: soo·dow·soo·guh men·zee·see. Douglas Fir is the state tree of Oregon.
Anyway, my greatest successes were in sewing and knitting. It became clear fairly quickly that I had a natural talent for sewing and knitting, so I began tackling more advanced projects. My projects won numerous County and State Championships in both categories. What a thrill it was to walk into the display room and see my projects with a big ribbon attached to them.
I think I enjoyed sewing the most because I could see my progress unfold very quickly as I worked on each garment. Water Safety came in as a close second because I was able to become a certified lifeguard. That felt like a superpower at the time.
I didn’t have one big “aha” moment where my shyness disappeared. It was more like layers slowly peeling back, year after year, as I built skills and earned success. I may not use those skills daily now (because it's less expensive to buy clothes than make them), but I still smile thinking of all the Grand Championship ribbons on display at the County and State Fairs. They were more than awards. They were confirmation that I had some special talent.
If you’re raising a shy child, or know of one, here’s what I’ll say: Programs like 4-H aren’t just about keeping them busy with projects. They’re about transformation. Confidence doesn’t always show up in obvious ways. Sometimes confidence grows stitch by stitch.
This is my first entry into the July Challenge hosted by Patricia Feager and Lew Corcoran.
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