Child's Play

by Echo Clairday 6:46 AM 1 comments

I was probably about 6 or 7 when I learned to ride a bike. It was a pretty interesting time but I had to teach myself. One Christmas my parents had provided me with a nice new shiny bike (that was a little to big for me). I was determined to ride it and my parents were always busy, thus I took it upon myself to learn. We live on the top of a hill so I went fast. And crashed a lot. I never wanted to give up though and it only took me like a day to learn. But once I figured it out I rode that baby every where. My favorite place to ride it was to the elementary school by my house and to tropical smoothie. It probably would have been more fun if I had friends to ride with but oh well.

My favorite relative growing up was probably my cousin Paul. In my eyes he was literally the coolest person I knew. I honestly still look up to him to this day. He is like they big brother I never had. While in college he would come down and visit twice a year, but now, that he is a important scientist, he can only see me once a year in passing. After school freshman year as I waited for my mom to pick me up, I would call him and talk about life. We talked for 30 minutes a day, everyday. He is still one of my favorite person to this day.

Honestly when I was child, I imagined my teenage self being really ugly. I always had good self-esteem and loved myself but I just thought that no one would ever love me back. Not the way I loved myself anyway. But sitting here now, looking at my life, I feel pretty enough. If my little self could see me now she would probably be in awe of how pretty I am. But I have the self-doubt goggles on. Sometimes I wish I still saw myself in the pure light that I once did.