Taking Things Personally
Every time my family took a vacation, we would enter gift shops to buy momentoes for our trip. I always looked for refrigerator magnets with my name on it. Not having a “Top 100 Baby Names” name, I would squeal with delight any time I discovered something that had Leigh written on it, especially with the correct spelling. My parents and siblings names were easy to find. Mine was always the one missing.Â
I had always yearned to start a collection of something when I was young, and made it my mission to find anything bearing my name. I wasn’t too successful, so, after taking my first trip overseas, I settled for Coca Cola cans from different countries. I am happy to say I have a pretty extensive collection of cans from almost every continent, with some of those cans memorializing trips that I have taken (I have been to two continents thus far) and others were momentoes brought back for me by relatives, friends, and some from my fifth grade students.
On TV, I loved watching Laverne and Shirley when I was growing up. I can always remember exactly what Penny Marshall’s character wore, because her mantra was a cursive L on the left side of her shirt. I remember it because of my personal connection. It was basically the closest I every came, minus the magnet I discovered in Virginia Beach when I was 14, to seeing my name anywhere, or on anything except my homework.
These days, you can personalize almost anything, and I believe that is the key to learning success. While my program is still taking shape, I am predicting that will be the reason Family Mappers succeeds to the level I am estimating. Any time a person can make a connection with something, they are immediately drawn to it, and remember it. My recent survey has revealed a great deal of information to me about my product, but the number one thing I am excited about is the interest of 20% of the people surveyed in knowing more about my product. I think it is a great starting number. I believe that is because they got the idea that their children could make a personal connection to learning more about their lives. They took it personally.
I know, once my site is up, that people will be very interested in investigating what Family Mappers will have to offer them. It will be the diary of their geographical life and will allow them to make personal connections with what is happening in the world; their world. People always say “Don’t take things personally,” but I am hoping many people out there take Family Mappers very personally. That will be the key to successful learning.
November 29th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Hi. Just found your blog from your Ryze page.
I had exactly the opposite situation from you growing up. I think every other girl born in 1972 was named “Jennifer”, so it was really hard to stand out, at least in the area of names.