A child psychologist was doing a study on the early effects of childhood development as it pertains to parental influences. Having personally interviewed more than one hundred children, he was almost done with his research and now was awaiting his last three interviewees.
He buzzed his office assistant and asked her to bring in the first of the three children. A few minutes later his assistant entered the doctor’s office holding the hand of a little girl. The psychologist grabbed his clipboard and pen as he walked over to the little girl. He took a lollipop from his lab coat pocket and in a soothing voice told the child not to be worried or to be scared because he was only going to ask her a few questions. He asked if that would be o.k. with her and she nodded that it was. He then began asking her his standard series of questions and took notes on his clipboard with each answer she gave.
Wrapping up his interview, he asked this last question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The little girl responded enthusiastically, “I want to be a ballerina!” Then the psychologist asked why she wanted to be a ballerina. The little girl responded, “Because ballerinas are beautiful and when I grow up, I want to be beautiful.” On the sheet next to the girl’s name was a column and in that column the psychologist wrote the word, “AVERAGE.” Then he buzzed his office assistant and asked her to bring in the second child.
This time a little boy was led into the doctor’s office. The psychologist sat the boy down and explained the same things to him as he had for the little girl. He also gave him a lollipop. He then began asking all the same questions. When the doctor got to the end and asked the boy what he wanted to be when he grew up, the lad puffed out his chest and replied, “I want to be a doctor.” When asked why he wanted to be a doctor, the boy answered, “Because doctors make lots of money and when I grow up, I want to be rich.” As he did with the little girl, next to the boy’s name the psychologist wrote, “AVERAGE.”
When the last child was ushered in, the doctor immediately noticed that this case was going to be different from that of all of the other children he had interviewed because this little boy was blind. After explaining the process as he had to all the other children, including giving the customary lollipop, the doctor began the interview.
When the psychologist got to the last question and asked what the little boy wanted to be when he grew up, the child pondered the question for a moment and then replied, “I don’t know yet, but I know I am going to be successful in whatever it is I decide to do.”
The psychologist was quite taken aback by the boy’s answer, his level of maturity and his confidence, so he inquired as how the lad could be so sure that he was going to be successful.
“That’s simple, the little boy responded, “I know that I am going to be successful because I’m blind.”
That answer really took the doctor by surprise and it confounded him as to why the child thought that being blind could somehow help him be more successful in life. So, with a look of utter bewilderment etched upon his face, he asked, “Why do you think that?”
The little boy veered in the direction of the doctor’s voice and answered, “Because unlike everyone else, I am incapable of seeing my obstacles.”
The psychologist was stunned and next to the boy’s name he wrote the word: “GENIUS.”
(Story adapted from Boy Wonder – Short Stories: Who Ate My Grapes? by Ivan King. Published by Valley Group Media, LLC.)
The best vision is insight. – Malcolm Forbes
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque