The Boy Who Didn't Believe in Himself #StoryAdventCalendar

illustration by Robert Fyfe

The Boy Who Didn't Believe in Himself
by Rebecca Fyfe

When Connor's mommy thanked him for helping her take out the garbage and told him he was such a good boy, Connor shook his head.

"I'm not a good boy," he said.

When Connor's teacher praised the poem Connor wrote and told him he was a wonderful writer, Connor shook his head.

"I'm not good at writing," he said.

When Connor's Daddy praised him and called him "smart" because he could read books really fast, Connor shook his head.

"I'm not smart," he said.

Connor lacked confidence.

It was getting closer to Christmas, and Connor received a video message from Santa Claus. Santa Claus, in the video, told Connor that he needed to work on his confidence. Santa also told Connor that he was on the "nice" list.

"I'm not nice," Connor said, "I don't belong on the nice list."

That night, Connor had a dream. In his dream, Santa came to see him and talked to him about his confidence. Santa told Connor that he needed to stop himself whenever he found himself saying something negative about himself. If he heard the words about to come out of his mouth, he needed to stop them and change them into something positive. Instead of saying, "I'm not nice," Connor needed to change the words to say, "I am nice."

Santa promised him that, if he did this regularly, eventually, the positive words would help him change his thinking to be more positive too. It would help him learn to believe in himself. Connor didn't think anything would help, but he promised Santa Claus that he would try.

That morning, and every day leading up to Christmas, Connor would stop the negative words from coming out of his mouth, and instead, he'd only say positive things. He'd say things like, "I'm smart," "I'm nice, " I'm a good boy," and "I'm good at writing."

Eventually, Connor started to feel a change inside himself. He started to feel as though the words he was saying might actually be true. He started to feel good about himself, and most importantly, he started to believe in himself.

By the time Christmas came around, Connor realized that the dream-Santa's plan to help him gain confidence in himself had worked, and Connor looked forward to a very merry Christmas with his family, who he knew loved him - even on the days when he wasn't feeling very confident.


***** This story is part of the 2014 Story Advent Calendar, with stories written by a variety of authors.