This week I am starting off with a bang, or in this case, roller skates. Today was my nephew’s second birthday and they decided to celebrate it at a skating ring. Which in itself back in the day would be enough to send me through a panic attack worrying about going there. Let alone the idea of actually going out to skate. Perish the thought the old me would have screamed. You have got to be kidding me.
That was not the case for today. While I had all intentions of going to the party. I had after all bought some presents for my little nephew, and boy is it a blast shopping for little kids. Especially when they are at that age where you can still get them fun toys. As they age it’s all about the money and the gift cards. It’s fun getting fun toys for them to play with while being jealous that you don’t have them for yourself. Then in my case trying not to buy some for myself. Yes, the struggle is real. I had not made any plans to actually skate. Though I had not really thought about it either. As I was preparing to leave I thought about whether or not I was going to skate.
Then I thought to myself how could I not go out there and skate? This blog and this journey has been about my going on adventures and trying new things. I could not really back out now. I had created so much momentum and done so much I had to keep going. I could not turn back now. I had to take the plunge and go roller skating. I started off slow and got some skates and slowly put them on. Lacing them up nice. Thinking to myself, yep, this is how I break both hips and my neck. Remembering the last time I was skating in this rink, I was a young child,. younger than 9, and slammed my head into the urinal because I could not stop in the bathroom. I was not going to let that deter me. Nor the fact that I have not roller skated in probably 22 years. I went ice skating my senior year just about 20 years ago. After put them on and standing up, came the tricky part. Trying to skate around before going onto the rink. It was a lot of fumbling and bumbling trying to get my footing.
Then after my brother in law convinced me to head out onto the floor and that I could “hug the wall” if I needed to, I went out there. And you know what? I actually did pretty good. I surprised even myself which is always a good thing. I was pretty fluid and was pretty smooth for not skating in years, and not ever really being good at it. I still am not good at stopping and I need better control, but for the first time in forever, I am happy with it. I am more happy with the fact that I went out there and did it. I did not run away. I did not make excuses to not do it. I just did it. I have learned so much about myself during this journey that it has opened my eyes to many things and brought so many new experiences into my life. A year ago I would have struggled going to this party, and even thought of excuses to not go. I am thankful that I got to attend another family function, have fun, and push myself into doing something different than I would have done before. I will even say it, I had fun, and I had a good time. I even skated pretty much the whole time I was there.
Life is an adventure and I am thankful to finally be able to enjoy it and look forward to my next wild and crazy adventure.