“Come to the edge.”
“We can’t . We’re afraid.”
“Come to edge.”
“We can’t. We will fall!”
“Come to the edge.”
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

Every adult has some hangups. Likely, these hangups started when they were kids, and they were just never able to get over them.

When I met Gabe, he had some serious issues with sleep. Not sure where they stemmed from, or how long they had been there (I’m suspecting a long time), but he was 9 when I met him, and they were pretty embedded.

Our first few months of being a blended family were pretty tough with sleep issues. Sleep issues had been dealt with in one way in his life, and that was was no longer compatible in the home that Rob and I were creating. I took a lot of flack for being the mean Step Mom when I said these issues needed to be dealt with asap. The plain and simple truth was, if he wasn’t sleeping, and was wandering the house, the other kids started doing the same, which meant I couldn’t sleep, and I was falling asleep at the wheel (since I’m pretty much a trucker and all)…which we all know where that could lead. Not good. Get to bed. Stay in bed. And sleep tight.

So we took a harder line and dealt with the issues. The issues resolved when he was sleeping at our house, but there were still some residual issues that needed dealing with for outside our home.

Gabe was terrified to go on an overnight school trip in grade 5. We forced him to go, he had a great time, but still held on to it being something he would never want to do again. Grade 7 came along, and he actually got out of going on the overnight trip by not telling us about it (which we found out about unfortunately for him, but that is a whole other story).

Needless to say, for his grade 8 trip, he knew he had to buck up and face his fear. We have been throwing around quotes such as “Fake it til you make it”, or “Feel the fear and do it anyways”, so he knew that this was not an opportunity we would let him miss.

Yesterday, he arrived home from his trip. He reported it was pretty good – but not the best. We were worried when he said that, but it turned out that he just felt they had too many scheduled activities and not enough down time. But, he did just fine with all the other fears he had going in.

We were pretty proud of him, and how he faced his fears. Hopefully, now he realizes that he can accomplish anything he sets his mind to. He does not need to let his fears win anymore! Way to go Gabe!

“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But, to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength”