Travel Vibes11

I am a person who speaks her mind, not always to the pleasure of others. I have always tried to be honest. I come from a family of ‘say it like it is’, ‘speak your mind’ stock. Apparently myself, my parents and siblings are ‘thick skinned’ because I don’t recall any of us ever being truly hurt or offended by the other. We are kind but honest and you can take us at our word.
I have tried to raise my son to be honest, genuine and kind. I also have tried to impress upon him the value of words. Words carry a meaning, as well as evoking emotion.
There is a subtle difference between saying “I’m sorry” and “I apologize”. An apology is a formal admission of a wrongdoing. It may or may not be heartfelt for example a person may apologize without feeling remorseful. On the other hand, saying “I am sorry” is usually seen as being a truer admission of regret.
There was a constant battle that I had when my son was in elementary school about this speak honestly topic and it started with the words ‘I’m sorry.’ For me these words actually mean something, and I taught my son that. The issue came when his teacher instructed him to say I’m sorry and he refused because he was not sorry and I defended his right to not be sorry, much to the teacher’s dismay. I do not recall the exact details but it had to do with him calling another child a name. The other kid was bullying another child and my son basically called him out on it, so you know what, BRAVO to my kid for taking a stand. Could he have used some better words, yes probably and we talked about that, but in the end he was, in my opinion, justified for not apologizing because he genuinely was not sorry.
My hope is that lesson is ingrained in him as he meets people in the adult world and in his dating life. The words ‘I love you’ are another phrase I feel gets flung around, or maybe just misrepresented. As we learned in my previous blog post ‘Love is…’ there are many types of love so when using these words make sure everyone involved understands what you are really saying. Good communication is a crucial skillset for life. I remember vocabulary class, oh how I hated learning those 20 new words every single week. Yet today I am so thankful to Ms Lee & Mrs Lane, my English teachers, for forcing those lessons on me. The fact that I can write this blog or even communicate with a modicum of intelligence is truly to their credit.
In a world where we are becoming increasingly distant due to technology, where we see families sitting focused on a screen rather than each other, now more than ever we need to remember to teach our kids that Words Matter!