"Easy is boring"

We often go for long walks on my days off—me and my 4-year-old daughter. Every single time, and without fail, she chooses the most challenging, difficult, and twisted path from point A to point B. Today, I asked her why.

"Why do you always choose the path that's difficult?"

Her reply was, as always, straight to the point and delivered with that unmistakable “how can you not know this?” expression on her face:

"Everyone takes the easy path, Daddy. I don't like easy. Easy is boring."

This is the same child who swims in open waters, jumps from heights double her own size, and once drove her scooter down a hill so long and steep, I would have thought twice before tackling it myself. There is no fear in her.

Before she was born, I already had a plan. I assumed my job would be to show and explain the world to her. But nowadays, it feels like the roles have drastically reversed.

She’s the one teaching me: about courage, about choosing challenge over comfort, about finding joy in the difficult path. It used to be “teach her everything.” Now, my number one rule when we’re together is different: stay out of her way, and just make sure she doesn’t injure herself.

My role, I'm coming more and more to realise, isn’t to interfere or steer her toward easier or safer choices. Instead, it’s to maintain a controlled environment while nurturing that precious "no fear & easy is boring" mindset. My greatest hope is that she’ll carry this fire into her teenage years and adult life.

She lives by a code that feels both alien and strangely familiar... a code I think I used to know.

I used to remember, long ago, what it felt like to be a child. I even think I promised myself at the time that I would never forget that feeling. But now, it’s all gone, just a faded illusion. Like something blurred at the edge of your vision that you know is there but can’t quite see.

Sometimes, watching my daughter navigate the world with such clear wisdom and unshakable confidence, it honestly feels like she’s been here before. I’m not sure how to explain it exactly; just that she seems to already know something fundamental about life that many of us spend decades trying to learn...

So, in short, what I keep learning from my 4-year-old is this:

There are always at least two choices.

At least two paths to take.

One is easy.

And its only reward is that it’s easy.

A.O.

photo by A.Orda