Awakening at the Museum

Once again, I was being bullied by my peers on a field trip standing in front of the space exhibit at the science and history museum. I was thirteen years old and had been bullied since the start of elementary school by the same damn kids. They always called me the same horrible names, they always pushed me around and they always played the same cruel pranks, like continually pushing me into a teacher and telling them that it was all my fault. It was a never ending story of dread and despair and it was not something I wanted to be familiar with. I just wished I knew how to make it stop. 

The museum curator had been watching this and she walked up to me and began talking to me respectfully, with a decent amount of compassion and understanding. She asked me what I knew about the exhibit we were standing in front of and I came to life. I began explaining the whole history of space exploration and sharing what I knew of the things in the exhibit. She commented how very bright she thought I was and told me I’d given a wonderful synopsis of historical events.

Then she said, “you know, I saw how those kids were treating you and I’ve been in your shoes. I too, was bullied all through school and I can see how miserable and sad that makes you.” I remember thinking, how could she know this? How could anybody possibly understand the agonizing dread I faced every morning as I was headed to school or the sadness, frustration, depression and anger I felt whenever I had to confront a bully because the teachers did nothing to help stop them. How could she see that I was unhappy, how could she see I hated myself, and the horrible ignorant antagonistic bullies that made me feel this way. I felt no one knew what it was like to live in my shoes.

But then she said something that I’ll never forget. She said, “the power lies with you.” Puzzled by her comment I asked, “what do you mean?” She repeated, “the power lies within you to change the trajectory of your life despite what you’re presently going through. Your thoughts are the key.” She continued, “if your thought is that those abusive ill mannered bullies are going to pick on you, your heart starts to race at just the very thought of them calling you stupid. You can actually envision them calling you stupid and then begin to think you are actually stupid. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but those thoughts alone can create that very outcome.” 

She said, “look around you. All these things you see were created from a thought, a positive thought, before it became a pair of shoes, a shirt, a space suit, a space ship or this building that you’re standing in. They were all thoughts first. But if you allow yourself to think negative thoughts then you will believe those thoughts and that’s the way you will live your life. Allow yourself to think positive thoughts, envision them, go to sleep with them, wake up with them and the positive thoughts will just start to come naturally, they will become part of who you are, they will become a reality.”

The last thing she said to me before I left was, “what you need to remember is that every time you have a negative thought push it out of your head and replace it with a positive one. Envision yourself doing the things you want to do most in your life and do that every single time you have a negative thought!” 

I left the museum that day unconsciously feeling what I can only describe as feeling seen and heard, feeling accepted and feeling acknowledged. After that day I didn’t think about our conversation again. Until one day, over a decade later, when I was feeling sorry for myself, hating my life and feeling like it was going nowhere, the curators voice popped into my head and I heard her saying, “replace your negative thoughts with positive ones,” and it was at that moment I realized it was time to stop punishing myself.

That day I found clarity. I took the three most important things I had always dreamed of doing and envisioned myself doing them. One of those things was to start my own business and I envisioned myself sitting in my office, working with my employees and creating new projects. The other dream was traveling and I saw myself driving to the airport, getting on a plane and walking through the ruins of Pompeii. Lastly, I wanted to be a published writer. 

Although, they are still works in progress, I’m taking steps that are opening up those doors. I’m taking my greatest desires and dreams and I’m turning them into my reality. I’m transferring my negative thoughts into positive thoughts and creating positive visions. All due to one fateful day and a fifteen minute encounter with a very insightful person with some very impactful words, changing my trajectory one dream at a time.