5. Tell the story of a mistake you made as a child.
For awhile I subscribed to the belief that regretting anything in your life was unhealthy somehow. I went along with that philosophy that I couldn’t regret anything from my past because all of my choices are part of who I am today. But then I got to thinking of all the mistakes I’ve made and I decided…you know what? I bet I could have made some better choices and still not affected the outcome of my overall life at all. I bet I could have made some people a little happier and still turned out just fine myself. Heck, I wonder…if I had made better decisions I might be even happier with the person I’ve become!
My brother, who is 6’9″ now and terrified of cats one time grabbed my cat and threw it off of him when it attempted to climb up his leg.
I didn’t appreciate his aggressive behavior toward my cat and since we were both children I marched right over to his aquarium, grabbed his small lizard by the tail, twirled it like a lasso above my head and then tossed it to the couch across the room
“You be mean to my cat, I be mean to your lizard!”
Two days later my older brother held the barely breathing lizard in his hands and talked about cracked ribs and then the lizard died.
I love animals. I loved THAT LIZARD. I threw it because my little brother threw my cat and I knew full well that cat still had eight lives to toy with. The lizard only had the one life.
So when people are asked to name something in their life that they regret and they give that whole “I have no regrets because they’ve made me who I am today” song and dance…I can’t help but wonder if they’ve really thought about what they’re saying. You have to regret something, right? There’s no one you could have been nicer to? No mistakes you made? No wild nights you want to take back? No car accidents you wish you had avoided especially four years later with a still injured back? No lizard you wish you hadn’t thrown?
Because I have to say, I have PLENTY!
Now it’s your turn!
Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back to add your name to the link list below. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!
The Prompts:
1. List 7 things you love about your home town.
2. Something your spouse said that made you laugh recently.
3. Write about a nickname you were given at some point.
4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: twelve.
5. Tell the story of a mistake you made as a child.
6. Write a review about the last movie you watched.
John Holton says
That’s when you learn that it’s not like tossing a plastic lizard…
abby says
This memory makes me sad… for the lizard, for your brother, but mostly for you. But ya gotta admit, it probably did help shape who you are today.
Patty says
Honestly, Kat, I think that everyone has a dark side, or, at least a shady side, where regrets hide in the corner.
In your case, what your brother did fueled the sibling revenge; neither incident was right but, Lord knows I’ve witnessed some pretty nasty exchanges with my spawn over the years.
You paid homage to the lizard’s memory and one life. You owned it and, like Abby stated, it definitely shaped who you are today.
Stay safe!