Why I Shoo

My Uncle Willie sent this to me and I love it. I wonder if this inspired Simon Sinek's work at all.

One of the few memories I have of being very young was when I was in Kindergarten. I was in Mrs. Dirtzbaugh's 1/2 day morning class at a tiny little elementary school just on the other side of the highway from where my family lives in rural, northern Frederick County, MD. I don't remember how many kids were in my class but it couldn't have been more than a dozen and on this particular day my Mom was there, too, as class volunteer, or whatever they called it back then. And thank goodness she was because I probably would have forgotten all about this if it weren't for Mom animatedly retelling this story about once a year. 

After we finished our station work one morning, Mrs. Dirtzbaugh had us all form a circle so we could work on our verbs. I guess she was tired of doing the first you take the peanuts and you smash 'em, you smash 'em rhyme and wanted a change of pedagogical scenery. The instructions were simple: one by one we would call out a verb and the whole group would act out that verb. Easy. So, one by one my 4 & 5 year old classmates yelled out perfectly acceptable verbs such as, "jump!" and "clap!" and "twist!" And although I don't remember what I was thinking back then, I imagine it was the same thing I think now in similar situations: I have to think of something brilliantly clever that no one else has thought of or why bother! C'mon, c'mon... think!. 

When Mrs. Dirtzbaugh called my name, without missing a beat, I said, "Shoo!" 

And there was silence. 

To fill the void Mrs. Dirtzbaugh calmly explained to me that, "Julie, shoes are things we wear not things we do."

Rather than argue I just pantomimed shooing a fly while saying, "Shoo, shoo!" 

And so the class, and Mrs. Dirtzbaugh, followed suit by shooing imaginary flies and we continued on. Unfortunately, I don't remember Mrs. Dirtzbaugh's reaction. Mom will have to fill me in on that but I like to think she was impressed by my cleverness and vocabulary. 

In case you're curious, the full definition of To Shoo is available on FreeDictionary.com. 

Why do I share this story? Because I just finished the section of the Learn Your Why course that asks me to identify the early experiences of my life, as early as I can remember, that have had an impact on who I am today. I thought this story was particularly poignant because I still have those thoughts of, I have to think of something brilliantly clever that no one else has thought of or why bother! C'mon, c'mon... think!. I still put myself under pressure to think of novel ideas for purely egotistical reasons. It's a little embarrassing but I've gotten pretty good at it and at certain times it's benefited my work so, take that Mrs. Dirtzbaugh.