Meetings at TeddyJ often start with icebreakers. I was born with my built-in icebreaker: my extra thumb.
I was in a meeting the other day, and the instructor presented us with the oddest icebreaker.
“What’s something you did before you were eighteen that you’re proud of?”
Completely blank. I truly did not do a thing I was proud of in my youth. I struggled to think of anything, but the thoughts that surfaced were all “kept my head down” and “did what my mom said.” It came around to me too soon.
“Nothing,” I said. “Survived? I can’t think of a thing I did.” And she replied that a lot of kids don’t survive, so now I’m Aborted Suicide Attempt Girl.
I realize now I had two good options:
- Lie. I could have published a book of poetry or given a stranger CPR.
- Say “I was born with an extra thumb” because that still works. I did it before 18 and I’m proud of it.
4 responses to “Work Icebreaker”
No, look, surviving is a real thing that you did in fact manage and which is at least a little impressive under the circumstances. “Successfully avoided being a bad statistic or terrifying cautionary tale” is *good*!
But yes. That’s not an icebreaker I have a prefab answer to, either.
KC – Well, I dod have my Mom and Dad helping me survive. I can’t feel proud of it. Any really, anything I did would be so Mom might feel pride, not me.
I go with the fact that I was in the all-state chorus. I actually am proud of that.
But hey, you’re right, you totally did survive. 🙂
I was surprised to see your recent comment on my blog. I didn’t think anyone was reading it; I was using it to shout in to the void.
OTTami (It’s been years!) – There can be no void with the Feedly app.