I am me: #5 - Willing to try
It ran away steeply like a long shiny steel tongue some weird playground-beast had unfurled from within it's gaping maw; it glinted in the light, glinted like the glory that I knew awaited me...one must visualise greatness - on this day, in my minds-eye, my impending greatness glinted brightly.
I sat like a Titan atop my bike, the sun causing shadows and light to play across my devastatingly handsome features - carved like chiseled granite - right upon the flat section just at the edge of the sharply declining slippery slide; my face set in a look of derision at the puny obstacle. I contemplated the task ahead and knew it was no match for one as Titanic as I.
It looked a long way down but it was completely straight so would be quite a straightforward thing; ride over the edge, peddle like fuck and pull up just before the end to affect a magnificent jump to the ground ending before effecting a stylish rear-wheel skid and accepting the glorious rapture of applause. I saw it all so clearly in my minds-eye and I even heard the adulation of the neighbour kids as they hailed me for the magnificent slippery slide tamer I truly was. What could go wrong? Well, at that point thoughts of what could go wrong didn't come to mind, I was a Titan and Titan's felt no fear.
The challenge had been issued and I was willing to give it a try, it was who I intrinsically was - a Titan - the kid who would see a challenge and feel inclined to give it a try because nothing good came from sitting back like an afraid little bitch. One must be Titanic!
A half hour earlier the neighbour kids had dared me to ride as fast as I can down the length of what was a steep and long slippery slide at the park near home.
They've removed it now, many years later, for being too dangerous for the little-baby-soft-mewling-weaklings that are the children of today, but back then in the late 1970's it shone in all its glory and I'd taken up the challenge eagerly as all Titans would. Anyway, because it was in my nature not to shy away from challenges I'd accepted and there I sat on my bike looking down at the thin strip extending below me imagining glory and acclaim I'd deserve.
Titans do Titan shit, it is known.
I pushed off to the rapturous applause calls of, "you're going to die you fucken dick head", from the neighbour kids.
I ignored it and peddled as hard as I could watching the bottom of the slippery slide racing up to meet me as I went. Glorious, spectacular and Titanic? You bet it was! I was re-writing the history books, the world would quake in fear and admiration at my Titanic feat.
Just prior to half-way things turned for the worse.
I got the speed wobbles.
Everyone knows the speed wobbles are almost impossible to recover from.
Everyone fears the speed wobbles.
I'd succumbed to the treacherous ways of the speed wobbles previously and had crushed nuts, bruises, scrapes and cuts to prove it.
At about half-way down the speed wobbles got me good. Titanically good.
I ran completely off the edge of the slippery slide onto the steeply sloped ground at the side of it, unfortunately I went over the side that had the steps cut into it which were lined with lengths of timber. Not good. Titanically bad.
I ended up at the bottom, crashing my way all the way down.
I'd like to say my first thought was for my bike and my first words were, "how's my bike," which I'd had reason to say many times before but...I was pretty fucked up. I lay there for a while...just long enough for the laughter from the neighbour kids to filter into my head...
Titans sometimes fail.
Later, many days later and still recovering from my wounds, I evaluated the episode and thought about what went wrong and began to work on fixing my bike and thinking about a second attempt knowing that I'd learned from the last.
Willing to try
I was one messed up little brown eight year old kid with a lot of scrapes and cuts, bruises and even a black eye...all of which I wore like a badge of honour like Titans do.
I got in trouble for it, my parents (yet again) having to lecture me, and I had to dip into my meagre pocket money stash to help pay for my bike which was not much better off than I was but that's ok...I didn't have the ability to be anything other than what I was, the Titan kid who is willing to try.
Throughout my life I've continued to be that kid; I mean, the man who still has the will to try ethos. It's more refined now of course, I see it for what it truly is, but even so it still bites me at times.
Taking risks in business can go badly. Doing activities like skydiving and hunting can too. Sometimes relationships are risky, racing motorbikes and cars too, other times I've been in risky professions...all things I've been willing to do out of a sense of responsibility, adventure, a never-quit attitude, ownership, determination, persistence a sense off wonder and sometimes plain old stupidity...and the need to simply get things done. But sometimes taking risks works out well, positively and to my benefit.
It's beyond fear where the road to something amazing, special, valuable or beneficial often lays and I've always been the person who's willing to try, to take action and push those fears and limits.
Thinking back on some of the stupid things I did makes me laugh sometimes; goddamn it I was stupid at times...but when I succeeded it was glorious and still is: Relationships, business, finance and so on, sometimes something amazing awaits just across the line that is fear. I learned so much through failing as a kid crashing my bike, hurting myself and such things, and I continued to learn, still do. But the successes came too, so many of them, and I put that down to my willingness to try knowing that failure may result.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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That hurt just through the reading. A lot. Made me remember some biking experiences that I prefer not to.
Risk is necessary and good. I just wrote about taking a $2000 risk booking a flight for Christmas with only the word, but not the legal permission of Lily's mom to take Lily to Germany. And she does not have the best record of standing to her word. I'm taking a few risks there, in order to slowly rebuild trust (which we had talked about under one of your former posts), because I have to. Up to a certain point, at least. It worked out.
Business is always a risk, if one is the owner. Every worker has the risk to get fired, but as an owner, you have the risk to lose it all and having to fire everyone. And still, it's worth it a lot of times. I upgraded from a home oven and 12 pans to a $10,000 investment into room and gear after only 8 months in the business. I paid that off in a little over a year. Turning every penny, yes, but I hate debts, even if it was with my mom.
I got married without a prenuptial agreement, that was a huge risk. But my ex-wife, though very hurt, is a good person and we divorced unanimously. That was luck, given the "normal" divorce. Still, that risk helped me to stay in Ecuador, and then build my business and life here.
With the years, I learned to evaluate risks better. Which are worth taking, which aren't. I think I give it a go with 50% success chance, or higher. There's still a lot that can go wrong, but I do have the skill to make the best even out of quite bad situations.
So, yes, I, too, believe that good comes from the willingness to try despite the failures that may come. Great post. Thank you.
You've taken some risks for sure, and I imagine a lot more than you list here as well. Risk needs to be considered (you used the word evaluate) and if thinks weigh up correctly then taking those risks can come with great reward. A 50/50 success rate seems low on the success side but just shows you're a comfortable risk taker.
It also depends on the area of the risk. I try not to take risks with my health and other parts of life I can't control well enough to balance out later. Materialistic things come and go. Most people come and go. So, taking a risk in that is easier to manage.
If the chance of success is 50%, it doesn't mean the rate is that, too. As I mentioned, I'm pretty good in turning something into a success. Even if I end up on the loosing side, I can still make something out of it - at the least, a lessons learned.
It depends on many factors, more than we could count and list.
As for for, making things a success, every failure I've had has been a success because I learned something that helped me lean into the next thing more confidently. That's the success that comes from failure. I learned something from almost killing myself during the stunt I mention above, a lesson that almost 50 years later stays with me. I'd call that a huge success.
Exactly. And that capacity of recognizing failure, owning it and learning from it is fading very quickly.
May be those things appears to be stupid and meagre, but it help in making a nice learning curve in life...it is important, people should evaluate the mistakes and never give up in life like ...."The Titan" the conquerer...
I completely agree with this part. The generation are growing in so comfort that they hestitate to struggle in life
Yeah, they seem to want (expect) everything but want to do nothing, or next to noting, to get it. Lazy.
That's true, and they wanted to call themselves cool...without trying any adventure in life.
Reading this made me laugh and also think how different things were back then.we don’t get to experience slides or challenges like that anymore because everything’s considered ‘too dangerous.’
Yep, a lot has been "sanitised" to make things safer but it's also taken away the sense of adventure...playing a video game isn't adventure.
If titans didn't fail, they wouldn't learn to improve themselves. That's the key: trying is what makes you move forward. Otherwise, you'd be stuck at one point on the road without experiencing life.
A titan, I also like to say a warrior who goes after what they want, and fear is a driving force.
I learned to ride a bike when I was older, and I crashed many times, but I succeeded. I never gave up. That and other falls have helped me become the woman I am today.
Yep, your first paragraph is what my entire post is about. Same with your second.
It's so funny to watch adults learning to ride bikes; so many crashes. Learning as a kid is much easier, kids are more resilient, bounce back more easily after crashes. But watching an adult crash a bike is pretty bloody funny, that's for sure. (Unless it's me doing the crashing - my old bones aren't as resilient as they used to be.)
If you have any videos of you crashing your bike please post them. I need a laugh.
I learned to ride a bike when I was 20! And I didn't fall, I crashed into a wall.😂
At that time, I didn't even have a mobile phone.
Let me tell you, walls are hard and it hurts a lot!
Damn it, ok I'll have to imagine you crashing; it'll still make me laugh. 😉
My brother, who is five years younger than me, wanted to teach me... but I kept crashing!
Then my grandmother came out into the garden and said to my brother, ‘That's not how you teach someone!’ and showed him how to do it properly. She didn't know how to ride a bike. My legs were already covered in bruises, haha.
Well, better your legs are bruised than your head. I crashed my bike so many times as a kid, usually doing something dumb, I'm surprised I survived.
As a child, you don't think about the consequences, but you know what? The secret is that as children we don't have those voices that say... everything will go wrong... we believe that anything is possible, that's why we don't die, because we can overcome anything without voices.
Yeah, I was happy to push the limits, got fucked up a few times because of it but that's ok, life isn't always easy.
They say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, well done! Every battle makes you a better warrior.
Indeed.
Hope now you learned it hard way...I am sure the wall would have collapsed 😆
You may be bad, but how can you say such things?🤣
I already know how to ride a bike, even though I don't have one now, ha ha ha.
At that time, I didn't have my witch powers, otherwise that wouldn't have happened.🤣
Yeah sure...I agree. But relying too much on witch power is not good in human world...I would like to see you driving ...
I don't know how to drive... ha ha ha, only brooms!🤣
Gotcha you...!
Walking and flying, what more could you want? Can you fly?🤣
A witch is my mentor , she will take me along to fly
Me?👀
It's actually a bit sad that many of us can't have the same courage in our adult years that we did in our childhood. I think we probably try to chalk it up to "knowing better", but there is likely a bit of fear involved that we used to scoff at.
We're not born with a fear of failure but acquire it. Parents and school teachers drum it into kids. "Colour inside the lines," and, "do it like this not like that," are common phrases that contribute. People are taught to conform and then as adults they don't know much else and so simply continue - I speak generally of course.
Common sense is one thing yes, but that's not the only reason people use to stay in place, there themselves or inhibit their own growth. There's a lot of excuses for lack of progression...most are just bullshit though.
It's interesting how generations seem to go to extremes to undo what they perceived were the errors of the previous one. From overly protective to out of control and back again.
Yeah, they call that human progression.
I see it as stagnation; nothing new, just the old rehashed.
I see it as the wussification of the world :)
That's for sure!
I remember those slides. Metal and kind of sucked on a hot day but they were probably worse here with 40C summers than back home where they were plenty hot enough at 27C XD
How did you get the bike up? At the school there was a play fort structure thing which we would sometimes drag the bikes up so we could ride down the slides on them but no one I knew was brave enough to pedal down (we just kind of sat and cruised and some people would lightly brake on the way down because scared of speed wobble and the drop and also there were obstacles directly in line of both slides though I can't remember what now, and the fort isn't there anymore partly because it was made of wood which would have rotted and mostly because a lot of what used to be play area got flattened in favour of more school buildings).
I also have a very vague and possibly incorrect memory of someone riding down one of the metal slides with the ladders but couldn't say how they got it up there to begin with.
The slide was on ground level down a steep slope that extended downwards from a massive permapine fort. It was super cool...but gone as it was "too dangerous for kids" apparently. So, I pissed my bike up there then
manhandledboyhandled it into the section from where th slide started off from. Easy peasy.How bloody hot did those things get though huh? Many an ass was burned on one of these slides. I think they still have similar in adventure playgrounds now but, of course, very safe versions which sort takes some of the fun out.
How the world has changed since our youth right? Although I think I'm a bit older than you so maybe the change hasn't been that much for you.
Nah we watched it happening. The fort came out because it was probably rotting and then the rest of the play equipment on that side of the school came out so they could build computer labs and the D&T workshop in that area. The play areas ended up being a lot tinier, nothing as cool as that old fort.
When we first moved to the area we're living in now, there was a pretty cool little playground up the road that had this type of roundabout
It was a bit sad when they took it out (they replaced all of the equipment in that playground) but in fairness the playground was at least moved to a better location (went from one side of a building basically in the middle of a carpark to adjoining a field and...still kind of attached to a carpark but at least there's the option to run on the field rather than into carpark all around or a fence).
Do you remember these monstrosities? :D
There was a really big circular one not far from where I grew up and we had so much fun and took so many injuries on that thing XD
There was a big "nature play" push where as well as trying to get people to go out into literal nature, playgrounds were being decorated with straight up petrified logs/parts of trees and/or equipment made of wood starting from some years ago. I sometimes wonder if it was at least partly due to a realisation that making things too safe stunts development and judgement and stuff.
I used to hate those roundabout things, no idea why people liked them; made me dizzy and feel sick. Not my thing.
Anyway, I miss the old days and don't like what's going on currently.
Oh damn lol...I only laugh because things of that nature happened so often back then. Plus, it's been a few years now so the pain and anguish has faded a bit lol. Speed wobbles are probably responsible for more emergency room visits than anything and perhaps more ass beatings. I do know those escapades have helped to shape you into the person you are today.
Things truly have changed since then, and none more than the kids themselves. When we were free to be ourselves and not to be micromanaged, we tried, failed, succeeded and triumphed doing all manner of dangerous or foolish things. We judged the probability of success and just went for it. Kids these days are cut from a different cloth. It's kind of like the clothes back then that took beating after beating, and still looked good while newer clothes sometimes rip, fade and shrink after the first washing. Could be inferior materials but I am more inclined to believe it is inferior processes that result in the lack of quality. Kids are like clothes...what you put into them...and sometimes what you don't.
I've had many run-ins with the speed wobbles in my day, my parents even called me speed wobbles instead of my real name for years. I survived though, and I developed in better ways through those moments, the adversity. Got fucked up a few times though, that's for sure.
I couldn't have said your second paragraph above better, you've encapsulated it is so well. I wonder if things will go the other way but I fear not. The world and humans are well off the rails and gleefully accelerate into the abyss. I'll be dead and gone before too long but it's happening already so will gett to see the fall.
Whew, glad that name didn't stick...Uncle Bonkers is so much better than Uncle Wobbles 😂
Humans can't fix anything as a whole, because we can't get out of our own way. I'll be gone as well, but I hope there will be some folks left otherwise we'll have nobody to haunt 👻
Uncle wobbles...yeah, you're right,not a good one. Although, uncle throat punch fits. Doled out a few.
When you're gone and I'm gone there's going to be some sad and sorry mother fuckers because we'll be haunting them. I can hardly wait, got some life to live first though.
Haunting is the new black.
Funny, when I typed haunting it auto-corrected to hunting. That works too of course. Lol.
Hunting is the new black sounds almost like an everyday excursion to the grocery store. Damn idiots need some gentle persuasion to get the hell out of the way lol.
Uncle Throat Punch sounds good, but maybe not fitting as a name a young boy should be using for his beloved uncle. I can almost hear him laughing at the thought of 'Uncle Wobbles' though lol.
Idiots everywhere!
Oh yeah, he'd like uncle wobbles, no doubt, I can hear his laughter now...he has a good laugh.
Oops, that hurt! Reading your post reminded me of how I learned to ride a bike. We lived in a small hill, and I used it as a boost to pedal. I only fell once and hurt my knee. I didn't pedal for several days, but then I got back to it, even though I knew there was a high chance of falling again. The adrenaline and energy of youth don't see any danger. I think those experiences are part of growing up and maturing.
Cheers!
It certainly bloody hurt, but pain goes away and chicks dig scars, or so they say. ☺️
You ride a bike too? Ok, we should devise a stubt, jump a crocodile infested river or something, and do a double jump. We'd be legends! Or dead. 🥴
Yes, I love biking. It's also a great way to exercise. Crocodiles? I don't think I'll make it to the first jump. They're big animals and bite hard. I can see them from afar. Those adventures are in the past. Now I prefer ziplining, boating, horseback riding, and hiking in natural 😕surroundings.
Hello galenkp!
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