Call Me The Terminator

It all started as a regular dinner time conversation.  My 3-year-old was telling us a story about how George Washington and Donald “Trunk” are best friends and they like to play soccer with Martin Luther King (Don’t ask, let’s just say between learning about black history, presidents, and the election process conversation has been really interesting).  Anyway, out of the blue my son announces (very dramatically, I might add) that we are no longer to call him by his name.  Instead we should call him the Terminator (or apparently “T” would work as well).   I asked him why (because, let’s face it, I needed to know if I should start looking into therapy for the summer instead of summer camp). His response:  “Because that’s who I am.”   When his big sister reminded him that he has never seen any of the terminator movies, he responded: “So, I just think that the Terminator is strong and fearless like me.”

Days passed and he was insistent on this name change!  Now, if you have siblings, you can imagine how quickly this became a golden opportunity for them to tease their brother.  I mean, really, he walked right into it!  The girls took turns making up funny names.  They would call him “germinator” or “termite”.  There was also the 3-year-old’s favorite, “Termy poo poo” (because when you are 3, anything with “poo poo” in it is hilarious to you).

The first few days, my son would get really angry with his sisters.  But on day 3 something happened – he stopped reacting completely!  Instead, he would get silent and continue doing whatever it was he was doing and totally ignore his sisters.   Do you know what happened?  They gave in and started calling him the Terminator!  The fact that he wouldn’t accept anything less was amazing to me.

It made me think of something.  How many times have you tried to reinvent yourself?  To change what you do, say or how you behave?  It could be something as simple as making healthy choices or as complex as a career change.  Often times, there will be people in your life (spouse, boss, friend, relative) who will find it difficult to accept those changes.  It can be so darn frustrating can’t it?  Well, let’s all take notes from my son, the terminator: We don’t have to get upset or even react to other people’s ideas of who we are.  All we have to do is walk in our own truth and others will eventually accept it or move on.  My hope for you is that you walk in your truth.  What should we call you? Who are you?  It doesn’t matter who you used to be or if others agree with you as long as YOU believe it!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my son dropped the terminator name after a few days but in my mind he is still strong and fearless.  🙂