A treat that my 12 year old son wanted me there. And even let me hang out with him a bit.
Applied Technology Career Days at the fair grounds was the destination. Every which way you turned there were booths about every which company and school in Utah that had anything to do with applied technology. A good share of the booths had some sort of 'hands on' activity for the kids to do to hopefully interest them in that field (however, truth be told, I think the vast majority of those 7th graders came 'for the food' so to speak..... lots of the booths had freebies, light up pens, water bottles, pins, candy........and THOSE were the booths where the masses were gathered. A little reminiscent of sample day at Costco if you ask me.)
One of the displays there was from a company who does work and research of things at a cellular level, so as part of their display, they had this portable, light up, hand held microscope. You could put it on your shirt, and the image you'd see on the screen was each individual fiber that made up your shirt. Same with hair. Super cool. The lady suggested we put the microscope on our hand, which I did - waited for a few seconds for it to focus, and then looked in a little bit of horror at what was on the screen.
Old, cracked, crevicey, wrinkled, nearly-dead-person-looking skin, with several black dots though out.
Blech. And ick.
Tried it again on the other hand.
Same results.
Looking at my hand with just my eye, it looked fine. Yes, a little wrinkled (I AM getting older, you know..) .....but still looked alright, no big black spots at least.
As we moved on from there, I kept thinking about that darn microscope. Then it dawned on me.....THAT is exactly how I have always seen myself. Deep dark crevices, old, wrinkled, and spotted with black dots (trying to be 'figurative' here.....)
Instead of focusing on any 'good' that there might be, more often than not my focus is on the black spots and the wrinkles, and because those things are what I see, it's hard to see anything beyond.
A good friend once said that she is her own biggest fan - not in any prideful sort of way - but she is able to see the good in herself, accept her shortcomings and flaws, and even be grateful for them.
I've always admired that quality in her. Envied it too.
I know in the grander scheme of things there is one who sees beyond the wrinkles and spots. Some days I remember that better than others.
For what ever reason, that image on the microscopes screen has crossed my mind much since that field trip yesterday, and it's sure made me think. A little bit wishing that my 'wrinkles and black spots' weren't quite so many. Wishing perhaps for the ability to 'step away' from the microscope when looking at myself.
Hum.....maybe that's a healthy step in the right direction.
Alright, thanks for bearing with my psychological moment there.....
On some funner notes -
here's some of the fun that was had at Career days:
The rock wall (how cool of the ARMY to bring that for their 'display' - the kids all loved it, and said they would all definitely join the army:)....
....and who WOULDN'T want to be a plumber? They got to unclog the clogged toilet (plastic poop and all....totally NOT kidding!)
Good times with the 7th graders :)
