There's an episode of The Simpsons when the elementary school is shut down. Lisa, working from home, tells her mother, "grade me!" and begs for stars for her paper. I admit, this episode (along with many other Lisa moments) hits pretty close to home for me. I've always liked to see my advancement, to get little sparkly stars next to my name.
In short... grade me!!!
In school, it was easy. Grades, check marks, honor society pins... all these things marked my progress and said, "You are good. You are special. You are smart." But as an adult, it gets a little more complicated. No more teachers look over my shoulder and tell me that I'm cool.
So I have to feed this need myself. First, I make to do lists. When I do things, I cross them off my list. It's a small thing, but I get a thrill of acheivement when I do it. So much so that I sometimes add things to the list that I did... just to cross them off.
There are no more stickers in my life... but I guess there are stars. Amazon and Goodreads reviews come with them and I admit that it makes me pretty happy when more of them pop up by my name (hint, hint). I like the idea that strangers have looked at something I've done and put a lot of heart into and say, "Yeah. You did a good job. A+"
I'm okay with my need for stars and smiley faces. In the scheme of things, I guess I'd rather be a Lisa Simpson than say... a Bart. Or a Homer. Now grade me!!!!
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