Disingenuous modesty or embarrassing self-praise

Writing about personal achievements and proud moments isn’t as easy as it sounds. You have to find a balance between disingenuous modesty and embarrassing self-praise. Thinking about it, two distinct fields of personal achievement immediately come to my mind: my family and my lifelong passion for the English language.

In 2007, my husband, my youngest daughter and I spent our summer holidays at the North Sea. During a day trip to the island of Heligoland, sitting in a horrible restaurant and wondering whether we should really eat the dyed potatoes or give them a miss, I received a phone call from our two older daughters telling me that my results of the University of Cambridge Proficiency Exam had just arrived and that I had passed with a grade A. I distinctly remember feeling a warm wave of pride sweep over me. Four years earlier, I had decided it was about time to brush up my school English, set myself a new goal and study systematically to achieve it.

The positive exam result encouraged me to go a step further and try to fulfill my long-cherished dream of going to university. But first, I had to do something about computer illiteracy! After all, when I took my A-levels, we weren’t even allowed to use a pocket calculator: It was slide rule and logarithm tables only! I had all sorts of misgivings about my plan and I needed all the courage I could muster to actually enroll at the University of Salzburg. In this day and age, we are led to believe that people on the wrong side of forty (even worse for those on the wrong side of fifty) are less flexible, less open-minded and less efficient than younger ones and just have to be dragged along. So far, I’ve done quite well among all the young students and haven’t regretted taking the step. I’m a firm believer in the merits of lifelong learning.

There are two things we should provide our children with: roots and wings. (Proverb)

my daughters, Easter 2011

The other area in which I think I’ve achieved something is my family. The birth of my first daughter is, by far, the single most important event in my life, certainly the one with the most profound impact. Arguably, raising children is one of the greatest challenges you can possibly face: It takes so many years, and so much can go terribly wrong. Whoever formulated the idea about the roots and wings for the first time – and information about the source as well as the exact wording differ considerably – did a great job. I’ve always liked and tried to realise this idea in the upbringing of my children.

I don’t take credit for my children’s looks or their intelligence. I’m grateful that they can stand their ground and show a number of desirable qualities: reliability, readiness to take responsibility for themselves as well as for others and an ability to show compassion. But what I’m really proud of is the fact that we have a very close relationship: we confide in each other, ask each other’s advice and try to be honest with each other. In fact, having children also has a lot to do with lifelong learning. One of these days, I’m likely to become a grandma and then there will be so many new things to experience. Fortunately, an end to learning is nowhere in sight.