Confidence Tricks is touring the UK October & November 2016.
I’ve been surprised how many times
Being confident has offended
And I think it boils down to
‘How dare you?’
‘Why do you think you have the right?
‘I’m better than you, and I’m not there yet.’
Confidence breaks the rules
So, are you slim enough?
Are you smart enough?
Are you accomplished enough?
Are you good enough
To be confident yet?
Where are you on a scale of one to five?:
Five being ‘strongly agree’
And one being ‘I am an aching void’-?
It’s a trick question.
Take the test papers
And fold them to origami
Or rip them to confetti
Or make spitwads
For whatever dickwad
Tried to cut down your person
Into Pass/Fail.
Confidence is not a medal
Earned at the finish line
It is knitted
It is perseverance given form
It is every stitch you know makes sense
Because
The cloth growing beneath your needles
Knows
That this has worked
Before
Before
Confidence is a chainmail vest
Built loop-by-loop
Link-by-link
A clinking tapestry of times you made it
Before
No one else can bestow
The right
To hold your head high
You learnt it every time you tried
You earnt it every time you survived:
Loop-by-loop
Link-by-link.
Hannah Chutzpah 