Competence

Many years ago, before I had lived through even one pre-teen, I attended a parenting workshop about pre-teens. One of the things that stuck with me from that workshop was that pre-teens really like to feel competent. They like meeting challenges, knowing how to do things.

I could, here, go into how I think that's true and give some examples from my experience parenting pre-teens. But this blog is about ME, remember?

Yesterday was my first day back at campus since finals in mid-December. In one and a half hours I: met with my internship advisor, bought a reader for a class, picked up a pre-ordered book for another class (all the other books were bought via Amazon, for less than the campus bookstore prices...'cause I have caught a clue), picked up my Spring '09 campus card sticker (a vital part of every Cal student's life), joined the gym (I have two hour breaks on Wednesdays and Fridays - yay!) and had my first froyo of the semester.

I drove, moved my car three times with no hassles, stood in exactly zero lines, and had time left over before my next gig to go buy the cutest trench coat EVER at Target.

In other words, I exhibited extreme competence. It was such a huge contrast over the start of the fall semester, and I was so delighted by that contrast, it made me think I really haven't evolved much beyond the pre-teen stage.