Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Facing your Boo Radley

     Ring, ching, ring, ding, ding... What makes this sound?  A clock? A bus? A plane? No, it’s the sound of a five year olds worst fear...a bike.  Wait...Daddy...are you positive I HAVE to ride on this... Are you REALLY SURE!  Everyone has there own "Boo Radley".  Whether it is a five year old, scared to get on a bike, a ten year old scared to jump off the diving board, and even a fourteen year old nerves going into high school.  Each person is different, each situation varies, but each one of us has our own "Boo Radley".  For Scout, it was a man a few doors down, someone who she saw as an evil, malevolent phantom.  Not until she stood in his shoes did she understand who he really was. 
  
    My "Boo Radley" was the first time I went snow skiing.  I though... "You want me to go down that!!!!"  "So you want me to ski down THAT MOUNTIN!!!! Ahhhhhh... I don't think that is possible!  I could DIE!"  At age seven, I stood at the bottom of White Pass, shaking in my ski boots, looking at everyone walking to and fro.  I tried to shuffle as fast as my little legs could carry me, but with puffy ski clothes, I felt like a clumsy snowman barley able to walk.  By mid afternoon I knew how to stop, start, and how to travers.  Not long after, I was able to successfully ride the Platter Lift.  The Platter Lift had a small disk that you hold between your legs that took you up the hill, and then you skied down.  I had so much fun, but it took a little while to conquer my "Boo Radley".

     Just like Scout, when you meet your Boo Radley straight on, you find that it was a lot different then what you originally thought. I thought that going skiing was going to be the worst day of my life, but as Scout realized that Boo was not what he was said to be, so was my experience with skiing.   
   
    

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