Feel the fear - Amanda Ashby

First up I'd like to apologize for missing my post last month. I actually had it written down for the wrong day so by the time I rolled it up was too late. But trust me I've given myself a very strict talking to and it won't happen again (hopefully!!!).

So anyway, it’s been a really great week for me, not just because my young adult book ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH has recently hit the shelves (though it has and you’re welcome to buy it if you so wish!), but rather because my eight year old daughter kicked some serious butt.

You see while she is an incredibly talented artist, a lot of things don’t come easily to her. Now I already knew that she’d inherited my hips and crazy hair (my poor darling, I’m so sorry) but apparently she’s also inherited my mother’s scaredy cat approach to life. In other words, things like swimming and riding a bike scare her more than a boxful of spiders (which, for the record, also terrify her).

So for the last twelve months, every week when we’ve gone to her swimming lessons, I’ve had to watch her cry, scream and basically put a death grip around her instructor’s neck as they try and attempt to teach her to do even the most basic moves. At times it was so painful to watch that I longed to just put us all out of our misery, but we live at a beachside town in New Zealand and learning to swim is as important as learning how to cross the road. And so we persisted without much reward...until this week when suddenly it all came together and not only did she swim her first length in freestyle, but she also did one in backstroke as well. And if this wasn’t enough to leave me leaping in happiness, the very next day she suddenly decided she could ride a bicycle sans trainer wheels and you know what? She did.

The point is that for a lot of kids this stuff comes easy. It doesn’t scare them it excites them. But after watching my darling girl face her fears everyday and eventually come out winning, it’s really helped remind me that the things we want might not be easy to get, but it doesn’t mean we should stop trying to get them. If Molly can do it so can we (oh, and seriously, you’re welcome to go and buy my book!!!!)

Amanda Ashby