Underestimating People: Lesson from a 6-year-old

Underestimating People: Lesson from a 6-year-old

My friend and I went on a short vacation at her childhood home in Bulgaria . After wandering the earth for half a year, I wasn’t that interested in traveling anymore, jumping from one place to another. I suggested that we had a simple no-frill holiday. Instead of going places, we would focus on doing activities like exercising beside the obvious swimming.

I swam every day, but I still needed another physical activity when my friend’s cousin asked us to join her beach exercise at 6 in the morning. “Sure! I’m interested. Who’s the teacher?” I asked. “A 6 year-old girl,” she said. “No, you’re kidding. 6-year-old can’t teach.” “Yes, she’s six and teaches every morning over there.” The cousin pointed at a small girl playing in the water, holding on to her grandmother. I told the cousin I would think about it.

Exercising with a 6-year old? I know a lot of hype
ractive, attention-deficit 6-year-old but don’t know any who get up in the early hours unless forced by their parents. No way would I wake up before dawn to waste my time with a child. I don’t mind spending time with cute little kid, but I’m not going to jump out of my bed to do that. So I slept through the next three days.

Then my friend told me the child studied ballet and had won many prizes. Her mom was a professional ballet dancer touring all over Europe.

“Oh, this means she might know something.” I wondered.

I pulled myself off the bed on the fourth morning to walk to the beach and try out the “trainer”. The 6-year-old made us run laps around the beach before set us on the mattress to do stomach crunches, hip swings, leg kicks, arm flaps among other routines taught in regular adult-run aerobic and yoga classes. We could barely keep up. How can you keep up with a boneless ballet child dancer?

I would have missed my dose of endorphins had I completely dismiss the possibility that a child could deliver anything useful.

I think we all do this at some point, relying solely on our first impression and biased judgment to make a conclusion about a person or an event. We need to selectively choose because we don’t have the time nor the energy to connect to every person and tune in to every activity.

But this means we might miss an opportunity to know someone interesting or to do something good. And in my case, to miss the exact thing I was looking for.