"Tough love is the nice way to say it."

One of my first lessons in life was not a very happy one. That was the day I discovered, well, that I was adopted. It’s not a happy story to tell, either. It was a couple of years ago, day or two before my 11^th birthday. I was riding home in the car with my mom. I stared out the window, watching condo after condo blur by as I thought about what I wanted for my Birthday. I don’t recall what started the conversation, but I remember how it ended. My mom suddenly spoke, and said, “I need to tell you something.” Now most kids know that either means something really bad or something really good. I immediately knew whatever she was about to say, it wasn’t going to be a happy thing. She then blurted out, “You’re adopted.” I grinned. My parents always tried to pull stupid jokes on me like that before. When I looked at her, I realized it wasn’t a joke. My grin died. Let’s just leave it as I had a very bad week after that. I spent a lot of time pondering why they even bothered to tell me. I guess I realized in the end that maybe there are some things that just need to be done, despite the repercussions. That’s something that needs to be done. That applies to a lot of things in life, and it’s kind of good thing they got it out of the way. I didn’t realize it at the time but it was a good thing, despite whatever unhappiness I may have felt.

"Good deeds aren't always fun, yet sometimes it does go unpunished."

ABANDON SHIP!

I don’t like boating. In fact, I hate it. If not for my friends and school life, I’d ditch this stinking state and go back to Tennessee where I’m nice and landlocked. That was just to preface the fact that when my parents tell me something about their precious boat, I practically ignore them. My dad once told me he was going to go check on the boat, and he needed my help. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Begrudgingly, we headed out to our little dock. There sat our boat, filling with water. My dad and I panicked, and leapt into the boat. I gunned the engines and took off, my dad looking for something to bail out the water with. He found a mini-Pringles cup and started bailing out water like a maniac. I managed to steer us towards big lagoon, and the ironic thing is that I managed to see another boat sinking nearby. As we reached the shore, my dad yelled, “CIRCLE AROUND!” The boat was still filled with water. We circled around, and eventually we made it back, safe and sound. While it may not seem like I learned anything from this experience, I did. If I hadn’t done what I’d done, or even been there, things could have gone horribly wrong. Nowadays, I’ve learned that sometimes you should go along with things, even if you don’t want to. I still hate the boat, but I’ll help out if need be. Some good deeds can be helpful, even if reluctance is there in the beginning.

"Prepared for the cold, always."

Woooooooah!

I once went sledding with my dad. I almost died however, which taught me how dangerous life can be. As I went sledding down the puffy white hill near the college, I turned to wave at my family behind and above me. When I turned back around, all I saw was a small ditch. Not a problem, until I realized it was filled with ice. And the ice was jutting up at the side I was on. And then I hit it. I went flying, the sled still back at the ditch. I slid on my face for about twenty feet. It was painful, it was cold, and I’m pretty sure I got pneumonia a couple of weeks later. As I stood up, after of couple seconds of just saying, “Owwwwwww,” and brushed myself off. I began to walk back towards my sled, nursing my injured elbow. Not watching where I was going, I tripped on the ice once more, and face planted my sled. Pretty sure I busted my nose up, too. I hadn’t seen either of those outcomes in my future. In fact, I had assured myself that the day ahead of me was nothing but fun and sledding. WRONG. My dad didn’t even bother to come down the hill to help me. He probably saw the ditch before I went down the hill. I didn’t see what was coming however, and that applies a lot in life. You have to prepare for things thrown at you that you aren’t expecting. I’ve gone sledding since then, and it was at a golf course nearby where I made a sled out of my face. I was prepared for the inevitable, so when I almost got murdered on one of the greens, I was okay. I was prepared. Now, I'm always prepared, for any situation. Except school work. That's off limits. :)

"Flying high and hopefully not crashing."

That's what I thought was going to happen.

I once learned to take risks in life. I learned that through a risky fly by in an airplane. My grandparents own two airplanes, the Champ, and Cherokee-6.  The Champ is an old fashioned two-seater prop plane. The Champ is fun to ride in; it’s more like flying in a plane than it is in an airliner or the Cherokee. Now, while we were flying pretty high, we took a look around the town, and then decided to go for a fly-by of the farmland out of town. I do love flying, and I’ve always wanted to get my pilots license. Now, this time around the farms we went a little lower, and got even lower when we got to my grandfather’s farm. As we flew over, looking at the wheat, we weren’t paying a whole lot of attention to the power lines directly in front of the plane. We eventually both looked ahead and saw the immediate threat. An “OOOOOOOOOH!” escaped our throats as my grandfather narrowly avoided the power lines and pulled us up. What I took away from that was that you can’t always go through life without taking some serious risks. And I wouldn’t have missed a chance to fly with grandfather even if it didn’t involve a slightly higher chance at mortality. If I hadn't gone with him who knows when I'd get another chance to. Always jump at a chance to spend time with elders and family members.

“Death sits atop a hill, but he isn’t that scary.”



My grandparents may not always be the sanest people on Earth, but I guarantee that there were some very good times learning how to drive and when we flew. When I learned to drive, I learned to drive in a 1960’s Army Jeep. We would go out and drive on my grandfather’s farm, in a very hilly area. Nowadays, we have a lot of safety precautions in our vehicles. However, that jeep had no top, no doors, no seatbelts, only one of the gauges worked, and there was only rusted metal where the back seats were supposed to be. On this far, some of the back woods parts had quite steep hills. One of these hills was nicknamed the “Death Hill”. Why? Because it was so steep that it was almost vertical. And what happens when I reach the top of the slope? I freaked out. Of course I did. It was cluttered with rocks, trees, tree stumps, wild animals, and a very narrow pathway. I had to go down the path, despite whatever I wanted to happen (which was escape), but my grandfather was persistent. I was still hesitant. He said he’d swap seats with me, and drive down the hill if I wanted. I said yes, the coward that I was, and after we started rolling down the hill, he yelled out, “Better take the wheel!” I looked over in horror, and saw he had removed his hands from the steering wheel. I grabbed the wheel and managed to guide us down the hill. My grandfather cackled the whole way down. I later realized that he was teaching me to not only conquer fears, but to take control of my life. When things don’t go the way you planned, you have to take over and drive things the way that you want it to go. Truth is, a while later, I did drive down that ridiculous hill. Still steep. Still think I killed a squirrel. But I did it anyways. I conquered my fears, and once I conquered my fear, I could take care of my life.

My Mom

Mom tattoo!

My mother, again, a generic choice, but one that’s true. Mom’s are nurturing to an extent (bad grades = tough love) and usually attempt to teach you life lessons in a not so subtle way. Sometimes, however, they can teach you things you would have never expected out of some of the happiest and unhappiest moments in someone’s lifetime. That's what moms do, they teach lessons to their children.

My Grandfather



Just because it's awesome.

My grandfather is also an easy choice. But can you blame me?  My grandfather has done a lot of crazy things to get me to learn a lesson or two, even if it isn’t obvious at first. You see it in movies all the time but it’s hard to believe until you actually experience it. My grandfather has been through a whole lot in his life, and he manages to teach me lessons he learned in his earlier years. Things like that can make an impact in my life.