Friday, October 1, 2010

Don't stand on basketballs

As a grown up, I realize that through the course of life I have learned many valuable lessons. Some of them were taught to me by my mom and dad. Some of them I learned in school and through experience. Many of them I learned from my aunts. Now, I am an aunt and my oldest niece recently started kindergarten. I know that they say everything you need to know you learn in kindergarten. I disagree. I believe that there are some lessons that one cannot learn in a classroom. These are lessons that can only be learned by living. So, here it is. A year's worth of tiny words of wisdom for all the nieces and nephews out there, or really for anyone who will listen. They may not work for everybody and you may not agree with all of them, but each is a rule that I either try to live by or wish I did.

# 40 Don't stand on basketballs.

My older brother is coming to visit in a couple of days and this post is in his honor. He is nine years older than me. When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be with him. I begged him to take me everywhere that he went. He realized once he started driving that he could pretty much get away with anything as long as I was in the car with him. I always went to him for advice and often still do. I wanted to be with him and his friends and do whatever it was that they were doing, just because they were doing it so it must be great. he is also much to blame for my music taste, though none of these things is what today's lesson is about.
Sometimes the price to pay for being cool enough to hang out with your older brother is the fact that you do whatever he tells you to because you trust him. Don't get me wrong. I love my brother and today I would trust him with my life. Unfortunately I also did when I was a child and too young to understand that I was their main source of amusement.

If he or any of his friends had told me that if I went to space camp then I could actually become weightless, I would have believed them. If they had ever tricked me into stealing cigarettes out of our mom's purse I would have done it proudly. If they ever snuck me into an R rated movie and told me to tell mom and dad what we "really" saw, I would have agreed. As a child, I was willing to do a lot, just to be allowed in this club.
One day I had the unfortunate opportunity to realize that perhaps I was not actually in the club, but only there because I was good for a few laughs. I was the tag along who had no idea that I was being annoying.
One summer afternoon, I was at the neighbors house with my brother and all of his super cool friends and they were playing basketball. I watched them play and chased after the ball when it went astray and went inside and got them snacks and water and drinks. I thought I was so cool. Then, during a break in the game, my brother came up to me and told me to try to stand on the basketball. I thought it was a bad idea and when I expressed my concerns, he and all of his friends started calling me a chicken and saying that their little sisters would do it.... So... I did it. Its even possible that I stood on top of it for a full nano second before I fell to my fate. The ball rolled out from under me and I fell. I skinned my face and my knees and my elbows and anything else that was skin-able. Then I SCREAMED!
My brother picked me up and ran me home, apologizing to me the whole time. I almost thought he was going to cry for a second.
The moral of this story is this: Just because he is your brother, your protector from the world, does not mean that he will never try to get a laugh at your expense. He is totally trust worthy except for when he is between 13 and 16. Don't give up on him, you are still the light in his life.

No comments:

Post a Comment