Level Three. Learn and Adapt.

By Michelle Lloyd.

Scores did not only apply to sports, results or scores of exams at school were what mattered to New One. He never did have an expression that did not belie all to his mum and dad. Thinking about this subject reminded him that it was on one such occasion that New One had been in a bit of a two and eight about a recent exam score.

In his house, dad had decided that all results were like sporting scores and they were to be celebrated or commiserated accordingly. New One liked nothing more than pleasing his parents but when he felt he had disappointed them, that he truly did not like.

New One came home with his mum and had avoided her gaze for much of the way. On arriving home he hastily dropped his bag in his rush to get upstairs, and he accidently caught his mum’s foot. Consequently having gained a shout of distress from her, he tried to say sorry and explain that he was in a hurry, but only received a lecture about not rushing about. Then to make matters worse, instead of having his important after school meet and greet time with Lana the dog, he ran on upstairs leaving her to whine in disappointment.

New One felt awful. Lana had felt sad. Mum had been left in a state of confused worry. Why had this anxious environment unfolded? Scores had been the cause of it and New One, who had felt ashamed by his performance at a school test, had decided that he would go into hiding until he could produce the results that he felt everybody expected of him.

All good plans, do not always end up with good outcomes and in this case New One found himself struggling and straining over the subject of his earlier test. He felt like a failure and the last thing he wanted was to tell his family about it, so when they came knocking, he would not even answer his bedroom door.

Pretending not to feel well, New One kept to himself all evening and despite attempts to bring him out of his room, he would not budge. Even more worried by his actions, New One’s mum decided to investigate.

A little chat with a friend from school meant that New One’s mum went into see him with new information. She explained to New One that not doing well at something in life was no reason to be embarrassed. Far from it in fact, because if someone tackled that same hurdle via a different means, a very different result could be achieved.

New One felt far happier after his talk with his mum and with Lana by his side, he listened to how she intended to help him.

It was after New One attended some extra classes with a few of his other friends from school that he realised he was not the only one who had needed a bit of help with that very same subject. He worked on it, had some fun in the additional classes and at the end, achieved some pretty impressive results. It was good to know that when or if he needed help, it was there but he had to remember to ask for it first.