Determination

Determination

Immediately I turn to page 14, the hidden pictures page of the Highlights magazine. After ten minutes I’ve found everything but the teacup, they hide it so darn well. I am seven and doing the hidden pictures is my favorite thing to do. We have had the Highlights subscription ever since I can remember. They’re those colorful magazines you see at the doctors office. You know they are for children yet they’re so fascinating you keep reading.

If you’ve never seen a hidden pictures before, you are deprived. It is a cartoon with about fifteen simple objects such as mushrooms, pennants, rulers and sailboats. The objects are hidden within the cartoon and the goal is to find them. I believe that when you look for something too hard, you won’t find it. But when you stop and let go of the built frustration, you’ll see it was there in front of you the whole time.

Now I am fifteen and I live in a different state. We still get Highlights and I still turn to page 14 first. A few weeks ago my sister Rebekah was sitting at the table doing the hidden pictures. I grabbed a pen and sat next to her. She slid it over so we could both see. It was a super hidden pictures, it took up two pages and there were about 25 items to find. She had just started, there were only about ten marked on the list. I could easily catch up, I’m pretty good at finding ‘em.

I’ve found that when I’m looking for a specific object, I find others instead. The right method is to glance over the items and then just look at the picture. Notice the people, or animals, and what they’re doing.

“Ugh! I can’t find the cake!” Rebekah exclaimed with a guttural sound. She was mad and that was understandable. I had already found it and refused to tell her where it was.

I laughed “Just settle down now and look for something else.”

“But I want to find the cake! Not anything else! It’s all I have left!” She was pretty upset now. Being bested by a hidden pictures is humiliating.

Rebekah was absolutely determined to find the cake, and she had trouble finding it. She had let her frustration build because it’s supposed to be easy, yet it wasn’t for her. Rebekah ended up having to take a break and come back. When she returned she found it immediately and laughed “that was so easy! How did I not see that before?” I believe it was because she was looking too hard. When she had cooled her head she saw it, plain as day, in front of her. The same is true for other things, like iSpy and Where’s Waldo. When you’re looking for something too hard, you won’t be able to see it. If you relax and approach the situation with ease, I believe you’ll find it.