Believing In Yourself – Rhys Guilfoyle
Rhys manages to tell his story with an eclectic array of touchstones, from “The Little Engine That Could” to Arnold Schwarzenegger to NBA YoungBoy and even Liz Truss.
BELIEVING IN YOURSELF
I believe everyone grew up with a favorite cartoon or tv show. One of my favorites was Thomas the Tank Engine. He always believed he can, he can, he can. I always believed I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. Anything that was remotely challenging in my life, I would just give up.
One day, I was hanging out with my dad and he asked me to move some furniture. I don’t know why he asked a ten-year old whose arms were weaker than Liz Truss’s financial plan to move furniture. I accepted anyway, and we began to move the end table next to our couch and it was easy. It gave me a little confidence boost. We got onto this piano in the dining room and, thankfully, it had some wheels, so we were good. The last thing was the shelf that stored all my dad’s records. Every shelf was stocked with records. I had to get every single one off the shelf and then move the shelf with him. Who does my dad think I am: Arnold Schwarzenegger? The Rock? I thought we could do it because we moved those other things with ease. But no matter how hard we tried, that thing wouldn’t move an inch. Who knew that IKEA furniture was so heavy? Every time we got IKEA furniture, the thing would collapse like the American economy during the Great Depression. My dad managed to move it a little bit, but I was struggling. He was telling me to try my best, and I tried but it didn’t move. All my confidence was erased. That was why I never tried or believed in myself. I would always think the worst and never get disappointed when it happened.
Everybody struggles with math at some point of their life. If you don’t, you’re probably an alien like NBA Youngboy. Geometry ain’t my strong suit. It makes me wanna rip my hair out. The shapes, the rules, and the math confuse me too much. Mr. Tom noticed my frustration and asked me if I wanted some help. I said yes, and I walked over. As I was trying to explain what my frustrations were, I realized all of it pointed to me not even trying to do it.
Mr. Tom just told me to go back to my seat and try again. I finished the problem and walked over to Donald and handed him my notebook, expecting the big X for wrong. I didn’t even watch him cross it out, I just looked the other way.
All I heard was Donald’s green pen moving in a circular motion and I heard a checkmark get drawn across the whole page. I did it!
I waltzed my way over to Mr. Tom and showed him. He said great and told me to finish the section. I was so happy that I wasn’t disappointed. It was a feeling I never felt before.
All those times where I failed and never tried again, just for it to be solved with a checkmark, was kinda stupid. Now that I think about it, if a green check mark fixed it, it could’ve been fixed years ago.
Rhys Guilfoyle
10/21/22