Last Saturday, my daughter wanted to eat sushi, so I bought a tray from an Oriental store for her. On Sunday afternoon after her figure-skating lesson, upon her insistence, we went to buy the ingredients for making sushi — bamboo mat, seaweed sheets, crab meat, avocado, cucumber, pickles, and some others.

After getting home, she started trying her hand at making sushi, with a rare enthusiasm and total involvement. The first try turned out not as satisfactory as she expected. Plus, the preparation process created a huge mess for us to clean afterward.

In the end, she declared things looked easy until you try it. It was a whole lot easy just to buy sushi than do-it-yourself. For me, the end result does not matter. What really matters is her effort, her attitude and willingness to give it a try and her participation in cooking. The process of preparation was full of talks and laughter. I wish children could take this attitude at whatever they desires to do.

I was talking as if I were any better than she is at trying something new. I wish. In fact, don’t we all need this attitude before declaring, “I can’t do it” or “I am not good at it” or any other excuse we are so good at finding for ourselves?