good at life

Last week my 10-year-old brought home a paper plate on which he had written his name in pencil, encapsulated in a box. Words of affirmation were scrawled all around it, written by his peers as part of an esteem-building exercise. Finding it on the kitchen table after a long day at work, I put down my bag and picked it up.

Among the declarations of “coolest,” “genorous,” (sic) and “great hair” — he’s a serious ginger — one of his classmates had written at the circle’s outer edge, first lightly and then again with a firm, purposeful hand, “good at life.”

Good at life. Wow, I thought. What a compliment.

My next thought was: kid totally nailed it.

I asked my son if he knew who had written it, but because the exercise was anonymous, he did not.

Good at life. Was this a meme I hadn’t heard of? The title of a Katy Perry song? Apparently, no, just the observation of a fellow 5th grader, perhaps one that was similarly “good at life,” or perhaps one who was not, but recognized it in another and was trying to figure out how to get good at it.

A bit about my son — I have described him as being born happy. His nickname as a baby was “Smiley Guy.” He would regularly wake from a nap or full night’s sleep beaming. To the rest of the family, his ease in the world was strange and marvelous, particularly to me. (I have been told my dark moods have their own gravitational pull.) When he got to elementary school, another mom dubbed him “The Mayor of Kindergarten.” And so on.

Which is not to say he does not have challenges or shortcomings or outright failings, because he does, but he is also the kid who wants to try something even when you say it’s awful. He genuinely he loves life and wants to experience all it has to offer. (His other nickname is “MTV” because, for him, too much is never enough.)

A bit about me — I can say with confidence, without boasting, that I am good at my job, partly because I have been doing it for a long time, but also because I have worked really hard at it. I am focused. I am reliable. Prioritizing comes easily to me. I have built successful teams. I deliver on time. I lead by example. I am a mentor, but I am also still curious, always eager to learn something new. And so on.

So, yes, good at my job.

But good at life? That’s a higher standard.

Good at life is going to be my new success metric.

Thanks, kid. Whoever you are.