For some reason, I stayed up late last night to watch 27 Dresses. It was a typical romantic comedy. Cute quirky girl meets cute guy in a meet-cute situation. Then some not-so-cute things occur that lead to self-realization and a cute ending.

It was supposed to be downtime for me, but I found myself being self reflective. The main character was virtually incapable of saying no, and it reminded me that I’m sometimes guilty of the very same thing.

So today, I looked for a situation in which I could say no. My father called today to see if he could pick my daughter up and take her to dinner. “Yes!” I cried. Turning down a couple of hours of free babysitting is foolhardy, not an expression of empowerment.

When dinner was over, Dad asked if I was picking her up from his house. I was in the middle of grading papers. “Didn’t you say you would bring her home?”

“Yeah, but if you’re out…”

“Nope, I’m at home.”

“Okay, we’ll be leaving soon.”

Was it a small victory? Sure, but every journey begins with a single step. By the time Lil’ Ma came home, I was done with grading. It was a good feeling.

I will have to give this no thing a shot more often.

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