What’s your favorite thing about yourself?
Me, myself, and I…there’s a lot about me that I really love. Especially now. I’ve discovered a lot of new things about myself over this past year. When I cut myself loose from a career that could be accurately described as stifling (among other things), I never knew that I would morph into this really awesome, bad ass woman. I’m pretty different than I was a year ago. So when I was thinking about this prompt today…literally all day…I had trouble thinking of my one favorite thing.
But then as I was driving the arduous three tenths of a mile home from work this afternoon, I narrowed down all the amazing things to one that hasn’t changed. There’s one part of me that has been constant both before and after my exodus from Catholic school hell.
It’s my sense of adventure. My desire to do things that are out of my comfort zone simply because it looks fun or dangerous or challenging. There’s spontaneity in that too. I wanted to go skydiving, and when I found out a tandem skydive was up for bid at my school’s PTO auction, I said F*** it, and raised my paddle enough times to win the bid. And I went skydiving.
Doesn’t even have to be that big of a challenge. When our p.e. teacher rented a dunk tank for field day and many of the teachers looked at it and said “you’re not getting me in that thing”, I said, “I’ll do it!” without hesitation. Boy did the 8th grade rake in some money for their class trip fund when I got up there. It was a dollar a ball and those kids handed that cash over repeatedly to try and dunk me.
And they succeeded…
It’s my willingness to say “let’s go!” when we have an outrageous idea. Outrageous is, of course, subjective when a middle-aged husband and wife are considering doing something outrageous. That might simply mean leaving the house after 8:00 pm to go to the store or go get frozen yogurt from the mom and pop gas station down the road.
But I’m always willing to do it. I’m the one to say “we totally should!” and then start making a plan. I think it’s what makes me a fun person to be around. I’d want to be friends with me for that reason.
I really hope that as I age, this spontaneity and “let’s do it!” attitude don’t diminish. Let me be the one in the nursing home racing my wheelchair down a hallway because the lady across the hall said “what if…”
Only time will tell…
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