Thursday 23 May

Blog Every Day in May - The best compliment

Repeating a compliment someone has paid to me doesn't come easily. I do it sometimes, but it always feels a little like showing off, boasting, not modest enough. And I've been thinking all day about what compliment made me most proud and couldn't think of one that really stood out. Of course there was the time 14yo wrapped the cowl I'd knitted for her, around her neck and said it was exactly as she had imagined. The time B. said a cake I'd made was a prize-winner. A compliment I got paid about my teaching style earlier this week that is still making me glow with pride, because I enjoy teaching so much.

But just now, as I opened up the computer to write this post, it suddenly came to me which compliment made me incredibly proud. It was a few years ago and it was when I took part in the ladies tractor road run for the first time with the tractor B. had bought on eBay in America.

I had practised with it for hours. The other tractor we own is much more like a car to drive, but this one has a hand clutch and I found it so hard to get my head around it. I understood what to do, but it didn't come naturally. We'd been out together, I'd been out on my own on a few short runs. But I was nervous of driving it 20 miles on my own.

 

The whole route is marshalled though, and when I was turning left at a junction, one of the marshalls put up his thumb to me. After the run he came up to me and said 'well done you, you must have driven it before?' so I told him no, it really was my first proper run and he said I had driven it very well. He knew what sort of tractor it was and he knew what it was like to drive it. 

The whole day is an emotional rollercoaster - really good fun but very poignant too. But that compliment was the highlight of my day, and two years down the line, I'm still proud of it.