How to Receive a Compliment

I have a vivid memory:

We’re sitting outside eating dinner in that golden hour when the sun makes the world look like it’s been splashed with honey. My father gives me a compliment. I don’t even recall what it was. I just know that I batted it away, as I’d been taught somehow, somewhere, maybe TV? How did Mrs. Brady take a compliment? Mary Tyler Moore?

I already knew the script:

THEM:
“Katie, you look so/sound so/are so_______. Your ______ is so _________.”

ME:
“No, I’m not. It isn’t. It was just lucky. Did you notice that crack/mistake/mess?”

That night, my father gave me a different script:

“Katie, I’m going to teach you how to take a compliment. You look the person in the eye and say, ‘Thank you.’ That’s all. No excuses, no eye-rolling, no putting yourself down. You just say ‘thank you.’ Full stop.”

This week, practice receiving compliments by simply looking the giver in the eye and saying, “Thank you.”