Good morning,
Are you a fan of superhero movies? If you’re anything like me, your fandom stretches back, all the way to your childhood. A leading man or lady with special powers, I can totally get behind that! Whether they were stopping a supervillain from enacting their evil plan or saving their goofy side-kick, I was hooked.
I think these stories spoke to me personally because of my own feelings of powerlessness as a child. There were all these adults around, doing their high powered jobs, making important decisions and here I was not too sure of my place in the world. Being a child is a time of very few responsibilities, but also agency over life. For those, like me, who were troubled by this, we needed a hero to swoop in and save the day.
Children don’t possess the same coping mechanisms a life of experience grants you. You still have to rely on the adults around you for stability and survival. I think it is fair to say that the ‘perfect’ childhood is a myth. We’ve all had difficulties, struggles and setbacks, regardless of how positively or negatively you can look back.
In hindsight, these troubles built us to become the people we are today and helped when dealing with difficult adult-y problems in future. For the problems us kids could not find answers to, however, it was our parents or teachers who helped point us to the best solutions…
You were hungry? Someone got you some food.
You’re tired? Off to bed with you.
You have a hole in your shoes? Let go to the shops and pick up some new ones for you.
It was also emotional as well as practical support, which we received in times of sadness and anger. Whilst this and the above would’ve been greatly received, we humans invariably still carry scars from childhood into our adult years.
A struggle for many in adulthood is dealing with these scars. During their time of least power, the battle wounds of growing up can fester within our souls and have devastating effects down the road.
While professional help is certainly available for some, living with these scars is a full-time occupation for most. A way I have found to be useful in breaking these limiting bonds is to look back into your childhood and become the superhero you needed as a youngster!
In the next letter, we are going to look at how you can achieve this, and don’t worry, you won’t need to go and get yourself bitten by a radioactive spider or anything!
Yours sincerely,
Ryan Rose-Blanc
Rose-Blanc Town management
Atowncalledme 