Awkward 101: Lessons Learned
Issue date: 5/28/09 Section: Features
This morning I was sitting in Reamer trying to think of what to write - something that happens more often than not. My friends and I got to talking about our childhood experiences and how half the things we did that our parents didn't know about should have left us for dead. By my house there is a wooded area that contained a tree house which, unbeknownst to us, was shoddily made many years before we discovered it. Not really thinking, we climbed the tree (which was half eaten and decayed by termites) and seized the fort and proceeded to play a "war game" that every other child at that age knows and loves. Because I was basically the only girl on my block, I was always the last to be picked on any team and always the first to be attacked no mater what.
This being said, I was chosen to stay in the fort and fend away any threats or attacks (genius, I know). Anyway, I ended up being pushed off the tree house where I fell on a pile of sticks and received a huge gash in my leg. Because everyone knew what it would mean if I went home screaming and crying to my mom about this tree house, I was treated like a queen for the next week in attempts to have me keep my mouth shut.
Another experience that I could have died in involves a deep swamp in the woods near my house. During the winter, we used to trek through the woods trying to find "hidden treasures" which were usually really old beer cans or glass bottles we found.
One winter while we were searching, we came across an old shopping cart half sticking out of the snow. Not thinking of our surroundings, we all forgot that there was a swamp somewhere buried beneath the snow. My brothers and neighbors went first to try and get the shopping cart. Being the last in line - as always - I naturally fell through the ice after it had been tread on by everyone else. Being small, and definitely not as tall as I am now, I fell through and was standing in the murky, swampy water up to my neck.
Boys being boys, when I cried for help, everyone just laughed and trekked on. In my attempts to get myself out, I kept breaking ice, as it was thin and the weight of my body now soaking wet didn't help.
Thinking fast on my feet, I used leverage - falling out of the tree house and not telling mommy and daddy - as a way to get my brothers to come back and save me.
I was so upset after they pulled me out of the swamp, I stormed home. When I got there, my mom freaked out and asked what had happened. Though because I'm probably the coolest sister in the world, I didn't tell on my brothers and about our adventures into a forest we weren't supposed to venture into in the first place. To this day, my parents still have no idea abut the things we did that should have left us for dead.
This being said, I was chosen to stay in the fort and fend away any threats or attacks (genius, I know). Anyway, I ended up being pushed off the tree house where I fell on a pile of sticks and received a huge gash in my leg. Because everyone knew what it would mean if I went home screaming and crying to my mom about this tree house, I was treated like a queen for the next week in attempts to have me keep my mouth shut.
Another experience that I could have died in involves a deep swamp in the woods near my house. During the winter, we used to trek through the woods trying to find "hidden treasures" which were usually really old beer cans or glass bottles we found.
One winter while we were searching, we came across an old shopping cart half sticking out of the snow. Not thinking of our surroundings, we all forgot that there was a swamp somewhere buried beneath the snow. My brothers and neighbors went first to try and get the shopping cart. Being the last in line - as always - I naturally fell through the ice after it had been tread on by everyone else. Being small, and definitely not as tall as I am now, I fell through and was standing in the murky, swampy water up to my neck.
Boys being boys, when I cried for help, everyone just laughed and trekked on. In my attempts to get myself out, I kept breaking ice, as it was thin and the weight of my body now soaking wet didn't help.
Thinking fast on my feet, I used leverage - falling out of the tree house and not telling mommy and daddy - as a way to get my brothers to come back and save me.
I was so upset after they pulled me out of the swamp, I stormed home. When I got there, my mom freaked out and asked what had happened. Though because I'm probably the coolest sister in the world, I didn't tell on my brothers and about our adventures into a forest we weren't supposed to venture into in the first place. To this day, my parents still have no idea abut the things we did that should have left us for dead.
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