A story about confidence
Sparkly and the Wobble Behind the Sparkle
Everybody thinks Sparkly is fearless. Inside, Sparkly is checking every face in the room. A story about confidence, and what it is really made of.
3 minutes to read aloud · 😊 Happy
Sparkly walks into rooms.
That is the thing people notice. Sparkly comes in bright and bubbly and says something funny, and shy fluffs stand up a bit straighter, because Sparkly has a way of making other people feel ten feet tall.
What nobody notices is the two seconds before.
In those two seconds, Sparkly is standing outside the door checking: is this alright? Will they like it? Am I too much? Was the thing I said on Tuesday odd? Do they actually want me here, or are they being polite?
Behind the sparkle there is a great deal of wobble.
On the night of the show, Sparkly was to go on last. Neaty found Sparkly backstage, not sparkling at all, looking at the floor.
"You'll be brilliant," said Neaty. "You're always brilliant."
"What if they don't like me?"
Neaty stared. Of all the fluffs in Candyfloss Land, Neaty had assumed Sparkly was the one who never thought that.
"You too?" said Neaty.
"Me too," said Sparkly. "Every time."
So they did it together. Stand tall. Paws on hips. Chin up. And say it, out loud, even though it feels ridiculous:
"I can do this."
"Say it again."
"I can do this."
Sparkly did not feel sure. That is important. Sparkly went out on that stage not feeling sure at all, with the wobble still going on underneath, and did the whole thing anyway, and the room loved it.
Afterwards, Peeky said, "I wish I was like you. You're never scared."
And Sparkly sat down on the step next to Peeky and told the truth.
"I'm scared every single time. The sparkle isn't instead of the scared. It's what I do with it."
Peeky thought about that for a long while, and looked, for the first time, like somebody who might one day walk into a room.
That is Sparkly's actual gift. Not the bright bit.
The bit where Sparkly says me too, and somebody shy believes they could.
