Wear your pride

Very recently I was asked by the folks at Kiwi for a story that demonstrates an act of pride in my life to add to their #KiwiWearYourPride campaign. I sat for a while and thought about this concept and what it means to me, I thought about the very thing that I’m the proudest of and how people may relate to it because it comes from the heart and so I decided that my story of pride would be about me becoming a mom. 

I have been on this earth for quite a few years now, how many exactly I’d rather not say 🙂 but when I found out that I was pregnant for the first time, as strange as this may sound I felt really proud of myself, proud that I was going to bring a little human into this world that would be an extension of myself and one of the most amazing people I know, my husband. I felt proud that I was going to be someone’s mom, that I was going to be responsible for shaping and forming a soul that will in their own way and without a doubt make a difference in this world. 

I don’t often think back on things that I have done and pat myself on the back mumbling words of praise into thin air. It’s not my style, in fact, if someone compliments or praises me on an accomplishment I often feel rather shy and never really know how to act. There is just something about that kind of applause that makes me feel super awkward, but not when it comes to my child. I’m the proudest of her and of myself because parenting was something I had never done before and had no formal training in.

Becoming a mom is literally like being thrown into the deep end with the kitchen sink chained to your leg, but in the same breath as I tread water I will say that it is also the most wonderful, confusing, amazing, tiring, rewarding thing that I have ever done and every day I have little moments of feeling proud when my child does things like takes me by the face to tell me, in the most sincere way possible that she ‘yaves’ (that’s loves in 2-year old talk) me. Or the fact that when we are out and about she greets every single person and animal that she sees. When we’re at the park she stops every now and then and picks up a piece of litter then heads straight for the bin. I look at her and see the kindest heart and that is without a doubt something to boast about. 

Pride comes in many shapes and forms and there isn’t just one way to express the satisfaction derived from it, there are many. I don’t wear my pride out in the open in the form of clothes or what car I drive, I don’t wear it in the shape of a gold medal hanging around my neck, but I do display it every time my kid takes another step with me in this journey that we have started together because I know that no matter what she is one of the things in my life that I will always give my all for. 

So that’s what I would like to add to the #KiwiWearYourPride storyline. What would your story be? I’d love to hear it….