Very recently, my husband and I were set a question about how I felt about ringing a perfectly ordinary 15cwt tenor.  The answer was on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most confident.

My immediate response was to pick 4 out of 5, while at the same time my husband was saying 'That will be five for both of us then.'  And he was a bit surprised I did not agree.

My longer response was to start contextualising the words 'perfectly ordinary' and '15cwt', and I realised that I ring that weight of bell and heavier all the time, so I should have been completely comfortable taking hold of such a bell.  Why was my first instinct to go for the slightly less confident option?

I'm still unpacking this, because I think of myself as a confident individual and not one to shy from a challenge.  But for some reason, I saw the word 'tenor' and didn't really see any of the other words, and held back.  Or was I trying to avoid looking too braggy?

It's another small reminder about how subtly we can hold ourselves back even though no one else is.