PROMPT: What was the best compliment you’ve received?

– WordPress.org

It’s quite literally a tie on the “best compliment I’ve ever received.” The first candidate it when my oldest was in elementary school. He was a little on the chunky side. He grew up, then out, then up…you get the picture. We were at the elementary school science fair and I had dressed him in a white and black striped horizontal striped shirt with black shorts. He wont first prize in the fair, but didn’t seem happy at all. Later on, as I’m mingling with the other parents (and having to dispel angry comments about how I did his science project for him — we put pictures I had taken of him doing every literal step, on the display board itself — the principal walks up with my scowling child. He had been fighting in the hall way. Three boys against him!

The principal and I took him to a quiet office and questioned him about what was going on. First, the kids were teasing him about “his mommy did his science project for him,” then they started calling him Pugsley Adams (I felt horrible because I didn’t make the connection between his chubbiness and the shirt), and the straw that broke the camel’s back? They told him that I was fat and nasty. I started to cry. My child was defending my honor! I asked him why?

“Mommy, the other comments hurt, but they weren’t going to talk about you that way!” It was at that point that I vowed to start losing weight and getting healthy — at least, he wouldn’t have to feel like he’d have to defend me in that manner EVER again! And the fact that this complement came in the middle of my kids and I also enduring horrible domestic abuse at home.

The principal also said, “Well, it looks like I have the wrong culprit in here and that I need to talk to three other parents. You all have a good night!”

The runner-up to this compliment came in 2018, after I decided to swear off dating EVER again, because the Lord would need to drop the perfect man in my lap. He has a sense of humor and did, despite me locking down my social media profile: I got a “friend request” from my now BF of five years. Before accepting, because I simply couldn’t believe it, I looked at our mutual friend. I messaged the mutual friend that I knew best and asked her about him.

“Oh, wow, girl! He’s awesome and so are his parents! I grew up with him. Lucky girl!” It was with that recommendation, I reluctantly accepted his “friend request” and started chatting with him. I did try to scare him off with tales of my recently surviving domestic abuse and the link to where they covered the final incident on the local news. He never batted an eye or was deterred at all.

I did have to ask him, “what made you ‘friend request’ me?”

His answer: “When looking at our mutual friend’s post, you made a witty and sarcastic comment that I enjoyed, so I looked at your profile. I thought ‘wow! Beautiful, smart, AND funny! I have to meet her!'”

Needless to say, I was blown away!