My mother is a wise and nurturing parent, and I have always had a terrific relationship with her. One of the best lessons she ever taught me was this: “You’re not special.”
Why would she say this? Isn’t her job to make me feel like I could do anything, like I was a stand-out? These three words fly in the face of most modern parenting.
Her point, I think, was this. The world is more vast than you can imagine, and the billions of people inhabiting it can do incredible things. You are one of these people, and that is enough. You don’t need to be better, you don’t need to be special. You just need to be you.
