If you cannot guess from my brilliant, creative and emotion-grabbing title, this is my first official blog post. I am writing this blog as part of a project I am taking on at my workplace – creating an e-portfolio. Part of the purpose of this blog is to serve as a behind-the-scenes narrative for building my e-portfolio. That being said, I have NO idea what to write in a blog; what would anyone want to read about? I keep coming back to a story I told a coworker yesterday about an experience I went through in my childhood:
It was sometime in the 90’s, when slap bracelets, scrunchies, big sweaters and tights were cool the first time around. I was in elementary school, probably around grade 2. My school had two sets of monkey bars, a long straight and high off the ground set, and a smaller circular-shaped set that was considerably closer to the ground. Being afraid of heights, I vastly preferred the small circular monkey bars. Well, one day in second grade I decided it was time for me to try my hand at the taller monkey bars – the “big kid” monkey bars. I approached this with steely determination, and just a little bit of nervous energy. I stepped off of the ladder and moved forward a few rungs, only to have my little bit of nervous energy transform into a tremendous amount of nervous energy. Immediately upon this transformation of energy I became frozen – hanging there on the monkey bars. The ground suddenly appeared to be hundreds of feet away, offering what was surely bound to be a long drop followed by a slow and agonizing death. Meanwhile, recess continued with children playing carelessly nearby; unawares of my inner turmoil. The bell rang and everyone ran inside; while I remained hanging there suspended from the monkey bars feeling helpless and afraid. Afraid to let go and drop to the ground (aka my impending doom), afraid of my teacher reprimanding me for staying out “playing” long after the recess bell had called us back to class, and afraid of what my peers would say when they learned what a loser I was for getting stuck in such a predicament. Eventually my teacher noticed my absence from class and came to rescue me.
I don’t recall exactly what happened after that, and I believe perhaps my brain purposely blotted that memory out for my own well being. However I can still remember to this day, some twenty years later, that feeling of helpless suspension on the monkey bars. It’s the same feeling I get whenever I take on a new endeavor that I am unsure of. However the difference between my 7-8 year old self and my 26 year old self is that I am willing to take the chance of impending doom and let go of my proverbial monkey bars. Here I am writing my first blog post, my feet firmly planted on the ground.
I still stay away from literal monkey bars to this day.
Thank you for reading my first post, I hope it was as enjoyable for you to read as it was for me to write.
