"Ring around the rosy. Pocket full of posy. Ashes, ashes we all fall down."
I'm trying to recall all the times I f
e
l
l
down.
I've been falling down a lot lately. Big falls. Little falls. Embarrassing falls.
But it didn't always used to be this way. I didn't used to be this much of a klutz.
In fact, I would often make fun of the ditzy girls who were always falling flat on the face. Recently, I've turned into just that girl. Tripping over my own two feet even when I'm not moving.
It all started last year. My first fall. (Okay, so obviously, I must have fallen a few times before I reached my junior year. But it was never a major one.) My first catastrophe, awe-inspiring, audience viewed,
terrible trip. The Maryville varsity track meet. I had unknowingly been signed up to run the 100 meter dash. I hadn't even stretched yet. So, I became increasingly flustered and was doomed from the start. The gun shot, and I was off, running as fast as I could. I was going to get second in my heat when all of the sudden,
T
R
I
P.
I bounced head first on to the track, hit the ground, bounced back up and hit again. The crowded gasped and watch in horror as my unmoving body continued to not move. A good 4 seconds (or what seemed like a lifetime) passed. Once I got back up I continued running. I'd finished the race in 23 seconds, which wasn't a bad time considering the whole... incident. My coach, as well as the 400 person audience, was glad to see that I was still able to move at all.
My second favorite fall just happened recently. At the Neosho debate tournament. My best friend, Hannah, and I were looking for Theo, a boy, and his friend Sarah, a girl. Once we spotted them down the hall, I started running towards them at full speed. This might not have been such a bad idea except for the fact that I was no longer wearing shoes. Running can be tricky business when you're just wearing pantie hose. What makes this story even better is the fact that I was wearing my signature purple dinosaur backpack, yellow horned hood and all. Running, head down, horns pointed in the angry charging dino position, I tripped. Better yet, completely whipped out. The good thing is, I was able to laugh about it. After checking to make sure that no bones we broken, I was even able to get back up.
This is what we need to do in life, with all the situations we’re in. Whether we fall literally, or mentally. Sometimes, things happen to us that will get us down, but if we just learn to laugh about our mistakes, we would be much less stressed out. If we’d just realize that in a matter of time, no one will even remember your mistake (unless you’re me, in which case your catastrophic track mishap will be brought up the very first day of practice the next year.) So, if you do happen to trip up a few times, who knows, maybe you’ll make some good memories along the way.
