There is nothing better than being truly surprised by someone.
Not the polite kind of surprise. The kind that stops you for a second. The kind that quietly rearranges what you thought you knew.
It happens when someone you think you understand well does something so off‑script, so not “them,” that you realize the story you’ve been telling yourself about them no longer fits.
That happened to me last week.
Enter: the elementary school talent show.
My youngest son was not the talent show kid. At least, that’s the story I had written for him. He wasn’t going to sign up. He wasn’t going to go on stage alone. No dancing. No tricks. No spotlight.
He was the kid who followed his older brother and his friends. If they did something, he might join in. Otherwise? He was perfectly content staying put.
Backstage, showtime ready!
So I assumed we weren’t participating.
And then one evening at our (what’s seems to be impossible lately) family dinner, he said he wanted to do the talent show.
I was completely caught off guard. Surprised. Curious. Unsure how this was possibly going to come together. He learned Blanco Brown’s The Git Up on YouTube and practiced before bed for two weeks.
And what unfolded was something I didn’t see coming at all: my youngest LIGHTING up the stage, confidently doing a hoedown (not to mention the amazing cowboy outfit) in front of all his friends and their parents, fully himself in every way. I AM SO PROUD.
It wasn’t just the performance that stayed with me. It was the realization that my expectation had been unfair and outdated.
This surprise shifted something in me.
It reminded me how important it is to stay open to growth—especially when it shows up in places we weren’t watching for it. Sometimes it’s a child stepping into a version of themselves you hadn’t met yet. Sometimes it’s a colleague approaching a project with a new process, a different rhythm, or an unexpected point of view.
When we collaborate with people who have different work styles, preferences, and instincts, it’s easy to come in with a mental outline of how things will go…who leads, who follows, who pushes, who hesitates.
These outlines can quietly limit what’s possible.
Growth doesn’t always announce itself. Sometimes it walks on stage wearing something you never expected—and if you’re not open to it, you miss it.
So here’s the invitation I’m carrying forward: release the predetermined version. Stay receptive. Make yourself available for surprise, I think you will find that your assumptions might be overdue for a rewrite.
Watching my youngest shine in the spotlight.
