WordPress Prompts – Personal Growth (P2)

What experiences in life helped you grow the most?

WordPress prompts

Part 2

What is transformational growth? What lies beneath the memories that stand out in our lives?

As a parent of three teenage girls, I know the fear of slowly giving them more space to fly. I have held onto these reins too long, but Little Lawrence is always in the background reminding me of my own childhood and how for the most part, I was given the freedom and trust to be a teen. I know it was a hard balance for my parents. My mom worried all of the time and would always wait up until I was home safe, and my dad was riding horses all over the city when he was younger from dusk to dawn unsupervised.

I was bussing it downtown or riding my bike all over the city with hockey stick in hand, from daybreak to dusk learning about life and myself. Those years weren’t perfect. I got into mischief, did some drugs, and found myself in some crazy situations, but my parents knew that for the most part, I would make the right decisions. And, for the most part, I did.

From my – and my friends, parents, teachers, and coaches saying that I was a good kid beyond my faults and blunders, that sticks with you and has to this day when my character has come into question. To be given the freedom by friends and family, and most importantly my wife and kids, to explore life and myself, and to be trusted that whatever it is I do, that I approach everything with the best of intentions, is transformational.

I am going to screw up. Hallelujah to the fault in our stars, but who I am is the result of the wings to grow without judgment from the people who matter the most.