Bravery in Action

I had the treat these past two days of watching bravery in action.

For a number of years Matt has been really frightened of the dark. He is fearful of going into any room that is dimly lit. He has bolted from movie theaters, aquariums, dark streets, and so on.

For a Christmas treat, my mother took Matt and I to Sea World in San Diego for a few days. We drove down on Sunday, went to Sea World Monday and Tuesday, and drove back Tuesday after a day at Sea World.

On Monday, in addition to a number of fun activities and sea life interactions, Matt *peeked* into one of the aquariums. He stood in the doorway for a while and looked at the fish in the tanks near the door. After a while, he stood in front of the tank near the door. He was so proud of this feat! He ventured to the few tanks right by the entrance and then dashed out. But he went into a very dimly lit building and explored a bit. What a huge victory for him!

On our walk through the park, we saw a fresh water aquarium. Matt stood at the entrance way and looked in. He backed away and ran. Standing in one dark room was more than enough for that day!

Tuesday, after watching the Shamu show (during which Matt was fearful - he was not at all convinced that he would not get wet - which for some reason he was most concerned about), he asked to see the fish. We went to the sea/salt water aquarium again. He started at the tank near the entrance way. He circled the tanks near the entrance way, returning repeatedly to the tank at the front. He then started working his way down the line of tanks, deeper and deeper into the dark (although after being in the aquarium for this long period of time - I am sure that his eyes had completely adjusted to the dim lighting. Still, he knew he was in a dark building. He was facing his fear directly.).

He slowly worked his way down the whole building. He viewed most of the tanks (thankfully most people were understanding of a young boy pushing his way to the front of each exhibit. It was a really crowded day and each exhibit was filled with people.). When he exited the building, he was so proud of himself. He knew exactly what he had accomplished.

As we circled around the park, we approached the next aquarium - the fresh water aquarium. Once again, he stood at the entrance way and peeked in. He kept dashing away and returning. Then he stepped inside. He crossed the first room to look at the turtles. He then lead the exploration, pulling us from one exhibit to the next, exclaiming at what he had found and then on to the next to see what it held.

He calmly walked out of the fresh water aquarium wearing a big grin. He was ready to tackle another big challenge . He said that he wanted to see the sharks also. The shark exhibit is one in which you start in daylight, go down below into the exhibit, end up in a tube with shark around you and then walk back out into the daylight.

There was a huge crowd and a huge line at the shark exhibit. We waited in line with Matt. As we got to the entrance of the exhibit, Matt began to panic. We had him stand next to a Sea World employee who was directing the flow of people into the shark exhibit. Matt could not see the inside of the exhibit because of the crush of people. He had so wanted to peek into the shark exhibit as he had at the aquariums. But the crowd of people made that impossible.

We all decided that we would try the shark exhibit on another, less busy day.

As we left Sea World, I told Matt how proud I was of him. He told me that he *peeked* at the fish. I told him that he had looked at all of the fish and that he was very brave.

Tonight, as he got ready for bed, I repeated once again just how proud I was of how brave he had been.

It is not everyday that you get to see bravery in action.