#ELBlog # 323: Your Hair Looks Nice

My daughter ran on the middle school track team last spring. She loves the competition, being outside, spending time with her friends, and the downtime between the events. She helps to put away the hurdles, organizes her friends for their next events, and enjoys meeting people from other teams and schools. 

One afternoon, I actually commented to my wife that our daughter looked pretty. She’s always been our little baby girl, and she’s growing up right in front of her eyes, already in seventh grade and 12 years old. Some friends of hers braided her hair before the track meet. She had a set of earrings on and a necklace from her grandmother. She looked so beautiful! 

I actually teared up thinking how blessed we are. Later that evening over dinner, my wife was telling her about our conversation and how pretty her hair looked and overall how beautiful she is. Tessa smiled and glowed, and she said you’re the second person who told me that today and smiled again. My wife asked who the other person was. She said well, there was this girl on the other team who had beautiful hair, and I wanted to tell her, but I felt silly. I didn’t know her and didn’t really know how she would react, but I went ahead and just did it. I just told her that her hair looked pretty. 

The girl smiled and started to laugh and said, “Wow, I just wanted to tell you how pretty I thought yours was, but I was afraid too, so I didn’t say anything.” She thanked Tessa for her comments and they exchanged some other pleasantries. She felt great about the comment and received one in return.

Nice right? What a beautiful story. It reminded me how important it is to compliment people. Be the one to break the ice and say something nice about somebody. Our mom always taught us that if we don’t have anything nice to say, we should not say anything at all. 

In this case, Tessa did the opposite; she found something nice to say. I was so proud of her and what happened? She received a compliment in return and made a new friend. There are a lot of lessons that we can learn from interactions. I urge you to find the good and others and tell them about it: a verbal text, email, and a good old-fashioned handwritten note go a long way.

Thank you for being an amazing young person and inspiring me to be a better leader and father. Keep surviving and thriving friends!