> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.notches.me/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Leave footprints worth following. - URL: https://www.notches.me/7-09-footprints-worth-following/ - Published: 2026-10-28T02:24:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-28T02:34:04.000Z - Description: Everything you do leaves a footprint: what you say, what you laugh at, how you treat people. Other kids see them, and some will follow. Make yours worth following. - Author: Notches - Tags: Chess, Age 7 Have you ever walked across fresh snow? Or wet sand at the beach? You take a step, and you look back, and there it is. A footprint. Take ten steps, and there's a whole trail. It shows exactly where you went. Footprints are very good at telling stories. Say somebody just mopped the kitchen floor. It's shiny and clean. Then the dog walks across it with muddy paws. Squelch, squelch, squelch. Nobody saw the dog do it. But everybody knows it was the dog. The footprints told the whole story. The dog looks at the ceiling and pretends to be a cat. Here's something I want you to know. You leave footprints too. Not only with your shoes. Everything you do leaves one. What you say leaves a footprint. What you laugh at leaves a footprint. How you treat the new kid, the little kid and the grumpy kid leaves a footprint. And people look at that trail, and it tells them who you are. Here's the other thing about footprints. People follow them. On a snowy day, the easiest way to walk is to step in someone else's footprints. You just go where they went. But then you end up wherever they ended up. Sometimes that's a great place. Sometimes it's a big, muddy puddle. That happens with kids too. Say one kid in class makes a loud burping noise in the middle of story time. Another kid copies. Then five more. Soon the whole class sounds like a frog choir. The teacher has to stop the story. Nobody gets to find out what happens to the dragon. Each of those kids stepped in the first kid's footprints. They didn't decide where to go. They just followed. Now, I love silly. Silly is one of the best things there is. A silly joke with your friends can make everybody laugh till their tummies hurt. Silly faces, silly songs, silly walks. Yes, please. Being funny is a great footprint. But some laughs cost something. A joke that stops the whole class from learning costs everybody their story. A joke about a kid costs that kid a bad day. And a gross joke in front of grown-ups who don't know you yet costs something too. They don't know all the good stuff about you. They only see that one footprint. So that one footprint is all they know. So here's a question to ask, right before you do something. Look down at your shoes and ask: Worth following? Would it be good if a little kid copied you? If yes, go for it. If no, pick another way to walk. What's a footprint you left this week that you'd be happy for someone to follow? Here's a grown-up secret. Grown-ups step in other people's footprints too. Sometimes I laugh at a joke that isn't even funny to me. Everyone else is laughing, so I do too. Then I think, "Wait. Whose footprints am I standing in?" And I pick my own way again. Being worth following doesn't mean being boring. It doesn't mean never being silly, and it doesn't mean everybody has to like you. Some people won't like your footprints, and that's okay. The question isn't "Will everyone clap?" The question is "Am I proud of this trail?" There's a very old story about a boy who looked after sheep. He sat on a hill all day, watching them eat grass. Sheep are not much fun to watch. One day, the boy was bored. So he stood up and shouted, "Wolf! Wolf! A wolf is eating the sheep!" In the village, everyone dropped what they were doing. The baker ran with flour on his nose. A man ran in his slippers. A grandma ran up the hill waving a broom. They got to the top, puffing and panting. And there was no wolf. Just the sheep, chewing. And the boy, laughing his head off. It was so funny, he did it again the next week. "Wolf! Wolf!" Up the hill they ran, slippers and broom and all. No wolf. The boy laughed even harder. The people in the village did not laugh. Then one night, a real wolf came out of the trees. The boy jumped up and shouted, "Wolf! Wolf! A real one this time!" Down in the village, the people heard him. The baker kept baking. The man kept his slippers on the couch. The grandma kept sweeping. "That's just the boy who tricks us," they said. Nobody came. The wolf chased the sheep all over the hill. The boy had to run after every single one. The people weren't being mean. They were reading his footprints. Every trick was a footprint. And his footprints said, "Don't believe me." But here's the good news. Footprints work the other way too. Every kind thing you do is a footprint. Every true thing you say is a footprint. Every good joke at the right time is a footprint. Make enough of them, and people start to say, "That kid? That kid's a good one." Then when you need them, they come running. Slippers and all. That's the kind of person I hope you'll be. Not perfect, and not boring. Just someone whose trail is good to walk in. Because somebody is always watching your footprints. Little kids, new kids, sometimes even grown-ups. And some of them will follow. Leave footprints worth following. ## After reading At dinner or bedtime, ask him: "What's one footprint you left this week that you'd be happy for someone to follow?" Go first with something small and true, like "I let someone go ahead of me in the line at the shop. That's a footprint I'm proud of." If he's stuck, help him: "What about at recess, or with your friends?" For the rest of the week, when he's about to join in with something just for the reaction, ask quietly: "Worth following?" Notice his good footprints out loud too ("That was a footprint worth following"). Make it clear silly is welcome; the question is where, and who it costs. ## What to watch for **The goal:** he can choose not to join in when a joke would stop the class or hurt someone, and stay silly in the right places. - **It's landing** when he tells you about a time he didn't copy something, or stopped himself. - **It's landing** when he notices a younger kid copying him and chooses what to show them. - **It's landing** when he asks, "Is this a good place for silly?" - **Careful:** bathroom jokes are normal at seven. Don't use this letter to shame ordinary silliness at home or with friends. Save the question for moments that cost someone something. - **Careful:** this isn't about what everyone thinks of him. If he starts worrying about being liked, bring it back: the question is whether he's proud of his own trail.