When I woke up, I knew I was going to have fun with the daily prompt, I just didn’t know how much! You see, I consider myself to be pretty close to todays prompt, which just so happens to be “Fearless“. Great word, isn’t it? When I saw it, my first thought was, “Like a Lion, baby!” Who doesn’t think of a lion when they hear the word fearless?
When I was growing up, I was the most fearless twerp on the playground. I would go so far as to say I was practically a dare devil! We had a game, chicken, that we played on the MonkeyBars of the jungle gym where I grew up. The only way you got to bark orders and be obeyed by the rest of the kids was to win against anyone who dared challenge you, and I was pretty good at that. Even when I was barely tall enough to reach the bars from the steps, I was the champion of Chicken, bravely and fearlessly swinging across the bars into what could have been my doom at any given time. I was the weird bossy girl who, rather frequently, would be found swinging on the swing. I was particular about which swing though, I preferred the one on the right if you’d been facing the jungle gym from the big complex. I was constantly doing jumps, flips, and spinning on that swing, so much so that one day the swing chain broke. All I remember happening after the swing broke was a sudden radiating throb pain along my back, then voices screaming shrilly in my ear.
Someone had called my mom, and my mom was there in an instant. It wasn’t until later I found out that my mom nearly lost her job for leaving immediately following the phone call. My mom was horrified, scared and trembling, I remember her holding me and I am not 100% positive but I’m pretty sure she cried both from grief because she was always telling me to be careful and worry because of how hard I had hit the pole connected to the ladder that led to the monkey bars. I don’t recall how long it hurt, but what will stick with me for the rest of my life was the terrified look on my moms face when she saw me hurt. Reflecting back on it now, it wasn’t as cool as I had thought it was, and I wish I hadn’t been such a fearless pain in my moms tuckas.
After becoming a mom, I have realized being fearless sometimes isn’t that great and in fact, being down right terrified seems to be a permanent state of mind when it comes to my kids. They are constantly doing things that freak me out, darn near make me have a heart attack, or cause me to come close to fainting. Not saying my kids aren’t a delight, they are, but some of the things they do really freaks me out! When it comes to stupid stunts I can do, I’m rather fearless still to this day, but my kids on the other hand.. I know its a double standard, and a bad one at that. Sadly, it is also why I don’t do stupid stuff anymore. No skateboarding down a steep hill with no pads or helmet, no flying down the road on roller blades with a string around my waist and the other end attached to the seat post of a bike, but most importantly, no more potential death acts because I don’t want my kids to find out and call me out on it. A rule I found when it comes to your loved ones : If you have to hide it from those you love, it isn’t worth doing.
Sunken Thought 