Sponsored by Toyota
I am at an interesting period of this
mothering gig. One where my oldest son is struggling to find his own identity.
He is desperate to be one of the cool kids.
Quite often he will ask me, “Mum, were you a dork at school?”
And I show him this picture of me at his
exact age.
“What
do you think son?”
I rocked dorkdom like it was nobodies
business!
I had Coke bottle glasses to fix a lazy
eye, a haircut fashioned from a pudding bowl and teeth that were an
orthodontists wet dream. My best friends were a collection of ladybirds and
guppy fish that I collected from the creek and I rode a very dorky pushy while
the cool kids whizzed past me on gleaming Mongoose BMX’s. I had strap on
adjustable skates as opposed to the white leather boots with glittery red
wheels and I lived in a one-story house at a time where it was socially
preferable to have stairs.
“Was
Dad a dork?” He asks.
“Still
is my darling. And that is why I married him.”
Because I have a theory on class nerds,
dorks and the like and it is thus.
They
grow up to be interesting people! Been to a school
reunion lately? It is a smorgasbord of dorks done good, while the popular kids,
one heralded as the cool group, well, not so cool anymore.
It is my greatest hope that Harry will
embrace his dorky heritage and get on with being whoever it is that he turns
out to be, free of others expectations. It is the path to happiness, in my
opinion. And hopefully it will mean an end to donning those hideous flat caps
that he insists on wearing.
And while we are at it, erasing Justin Bieber,
Rihanna and One Direction from his iPod.
When Toyota asked me to come on board to
spread the word about their new campaign “Calling all the Heroes” I raised my
hand like the inner dork sitting in the front row of that classroom back in the
day.
Because it from Toyota’s loins that my
beloved Sonia Kluger sprung from. And we all know how I feel about her!
And also, they endorse the theory that
indeed, it is hip to be square.
There is a very strong social media
movement to get Huey Lewis and the News
into the number one spot on the ARIAS Chart, knocking off whatever rubbish is
sitting there at the moment.
Let’s see whether we can regain this pinnacle
of excellence and celebrate the fact that indeed, it is hip to be square.
Where you a dork?
Did you rock a Mork and Mindy
Lunchbox as well?
Or where you too cool for
school…..
