rejecting my inner child

I planned to title this post "embracing my inner child" because I thought I'd write about trying to cling to those youthful days with no cares or worries. The thing is, I was kind of a nervous kid. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't the most adventurous, and definitely wasn't big on breaking rules.

Yes, okay, I was the goody-goody over-achiever. And I avoided those things I didn't excel at in order to escape embarrassment. I also made it through childhood and the following years without ever breaking a bone, getting arrested, or any number of other rites of passage from carefree youth to responsible adulthood.

If my childhood was the movie Now and Then,
which it basically was, I was Chrissy. Although
these days I'm probably more Roberta.

So when I set out on Saturday to climb a tree, I had to think pretty hard. Had I ever actually climbed a tree before? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but it wasn't something I did on a regular basis. I wasn't the most athletic kid, and would have rather spent my time in a hammock hanging from the tree, reading a book.

Of course, climbing a tree shouldn't be a big deal. I've assembled and worked on scaffolding three stories high, put a roof on a house built on stilts, and jumped out of an airplane.

But as we walked deep into Rock Creek Park and finally found some climb-able trees, I felt that old nervousness and embarrassment set in. The first tree I tried was a bust. The trunk was at an angle, but there was no place to get a foothold. I was tempted to just give up.

This tree was rejected.

But soon we found an acceptable arbor, and before Angela could even begin documenting it, I had scurried up the tree.

I made Angela take the picture from this angle so it wasn't a
a picture looking straight up at my butt. You're welcome.

Of course I know that climbing a tree is no big deal. But I found myself worrying that a park ranger would appear and admonish me (is tree climbing forbidden? I sincerely doubt it). Or that I'd slip and fall and finally break a bone for the first time in my life. But when the moment arrived I went for it and nothing bad happened at all. Also, I remembered how awesome it is to live next door to a giant, beautiful park!

Since you made it to the end of this silly post, here's a picture of Devon Sawa:

We all wanted to be Roberta when she got to awkwardly kiss
Devon Sawa, right?