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Community Corner

You'll Never Know, Unless you Try

Sometimes you have to allow your children to explore their interests, even though it might be costly.

My hobby is photography; I have a camera on me at all times. I once read a book where the author insisted that you would not get good at something unless you do it everyday and that really spoke to me. So I carry around a camera everywhere I go in hopes of becoming a better photographer. Practice makes perfect, so they say.

My youngest son is often asking, “Can I have a turn?”

I will admit that most days his request is answered with a hurried, “not now sweetie,"  as I cringe at that thought of allowing his small hands hold my expensive camera.

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I worry though that if he is interested in photography I should give him the chance to explore it. Maybe he’s brilliant! Maybe he’s a photography protégée.  I’d never know unless I handed him the camera every once in a while.

I don’t want to make the mistake my parents made with me and bicycle riding. My parents have always been avid cyclists. Not the casual riders on Sunday, breezing through the neighborhood. No, my parents would opt to take their small children on vacations that only involved riding their bikes for 50 miles everyday, for a week. They were those parents!

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The mistake they made though, was they never bought me a good bike. So I hated bicycle riding. The bikes never fit me properly, were heavy, had outdated shifters, etc. It wasn’t until, as an adult, I purchased a bike that properly fit me that I realized; I did enjoy bicycle riding!

I don’t want to ruin Z’s love of photography with a crappy Fisher Price camera. So every once in a while I take a deep breath while I put the camera strap around his neck and we go over the rules:

  • No running;
  • Keep the camera in your hands;
  • And do NOT bang it into anything.

It’s not like any of these things are likely to happen since I am twelve inches from his side when he is allowed this precious time with my camera. I’m trying. I’ve also allowed him to have my hand-me-down point-and-shoot camera but his sights are set on the $500 portrait lens. I can’t say I blame him; it is pretty exceptional.

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