Self Esteem

I think you get your first impression of yourself from your parents. Myparents did thier best, but they didn't instill any self-esteem in me.They never said, "You can do anything" or "You have a special gift".Instead I was led to believe I was just ordinary. My grades wereordinary, I wasn't pushed to get better grades or told that I could. Mygrades were accepted as they were which led me to believe that I wasordinary. Nothing special. I married young, dropped out of school. I was a nobody. My mind said tojust settle and be happy with what I got. Be glad for the attributes Idid have, don't look for more because there was none and why did Ideserve any more anyway? It took me a very long time to gather courage and find my way. Gainingself-esteem by my accomplishments at a snails pace. Nonetheless, it wasprogress. I found myself realizing that it was okay that I hadweakenesses, everyone does. My strength was in knowing I did, and tocompensate for it. Just because I wasn't a mathematical genius didn'tmean I was worthless. Each time I tried something new and succeeded atit put another brick of self-esteem where one was missing. There werefailures. But those secured the knowledge that I'd have to try harder,it didn't mean I couldn't accomplish the task. Having two daughters of my own, I wanted them to grow up believing inthemselves. I didn't want them to learn the hard way as I did, takingyears to get there. From an early age I told them how special they were.How they could do anything they set thier mind to. Not to listen tonay-sayers. My oldest is in college now, having graduated high schoolvaledictorian. She has the world by the tail. She believes in herself.It's all I could ask for.