Childhood and Memory Lane

    This past week, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit my best friend Katie on her farm in Minnesota. These trips are some of my favorite times for several reasons. 1) Katie is my best friend and has been since I was eight. Obviously, this is a significant reason for my joy. 2) I always come back from Katie's feeling stronger, tougher, and a little less helpless-city-girl. 

     Laugh if you want. In fact, anyone from the country is encouraged--nay, required--to laugh at my naive joy from playing a "country girl". Over the years, I have useful life skills like horseback riding, break neck sledding, extreme tree climbing, playhouse roof jumping, how to drive the four-wheeler, how to operate the riding lawn mower (the last two did not go particularly well), how to shoot a rifle (no comments, please. Its not my fault I can't aim), basic archery, and how to deal with my fair share of cuts and bruises. All of these I've embraced with a certain amount of pride; especially the cuts and bruises. 

     Believe it or not, I used to be a major tom boy. Until I was forced to attend my homeschool kindergarten all day, I could be found running around the neighborhood playing with my best friend, the neighbor boy Luke. We played everything from Indians to rolling in the mud. I was ALWAYS in charge and had no squeamishness when it came to small creatures and dirt. Naturally, I was always bruised up. For years now, though, I haven't gotten a good scraping. Well, when I was at Katie's house this past week this sad fact was remedied. 

    We were riding in the wagon on the back of the 4 wheeler and the bolt connecting the two broke. I flew forward, landing on my knee, hip, and elbow. The battle scars are a satisfying array of scrapes, bruising, and originally sported a sweet layer of dirt. After disentangling my glasses from my hair, ascertaining that everyone was alright, and making sure that my sore leg worked properly, I couldn't help but smile. There is nothing like a good scrape up to reassure yourself that you're not growing up after all. 

     I'm leaving for college in only a few short weeks, but I can't help but feeling like more of a child than ever. I love it. So, take a moment if you can today and recapture this experience of fully living. Whether it entails staring at the stars, eating tons of ice cream, spinning in circles until you're about to puke, putting a worm down your brother's back (he really needs to get over his fears...I mean, I would never EVER be that cruel), or having a watermelon seed spitting contest, let yourself give in to the simple pleasures of summer and childhood. Remember when your best friends were imaginary, the world was bigger than you could ever even grasp, and your greatest problems included deciding between playing hide-and-go-seek-tag or sardines until the sun went down. 

   What about me? I'm pretty lucky. I got home from the lovely farm today, so I don't quite have the crazy companionship of my best friend. However, I do have two younger brothers who haven't been challenged nearly enough by the Hide-And-Seek Queen. As for those worms, well, the boys better get over their fears fast. Because I seem to remember the best place to dig them up. I also shall endeavor to get plenty of corn-on-the-cob stuck in my teeth at dinner, and will follow it up with a dessert of giggling over my crazier exploits. Curious? Too bad. You'll have to wait for another lazy summer day to hear the further tales of Leah the Childhood Terror.