The other day I took two of my favorite kiddos to play on the playground at a local park. As I sat on the lopsided picnic bench and watched them run around, an idea struck me. To me, this playground is just a bunch of fun metal, but to these to boys it was apparently a large palace with a "lookout tower". The way these boys saw something so imaginative, made me realize that this playground was one big metaphor.
*This is the moment where I open Spotify and play "Down In The Valley" by The Head and The Heart and get to writing in my notebook.*
Welcome to my playground, otherwise known as my life. Let me give you the grand tour (I couldn't type that without imagining my grandfather singing the lyrics 'step right up, come on in' as the George Jones live concert plays in the background. If you know, you know.)
First, the see-saw. The see-saw represents my family and inner circle of friends, because every time that I am down I know there is someone on the other side ready to raise me up. Luckily, I have formed this mutual relationship with my closest peeps, so I know that if they are the ones down, that I need to raise them up (even if that means I have to bounce a little to bring em' up).
Next, the monkey bars. The monkey bars are the opportunities in life that seem really good until you get about halfway into the situation. To be more relatable, I'll give you a story. When I was in 2nd grade I had this really good idea that I wanted my hair really short. *So here I am on the platform, ready to go.* Next, my mom takes me to the hair salon and Mrs.Mary starts cutting. *I have officially grabbed the first bar* She keeps cutting it, and finally she spins me around. *I have successfully made it half way across the monkey bars*. Here I am, in the chair with a super cute haircut. I hear my mom saying "that's cute, Soph", and in that very moment my grip loosens. I, being the ignorant little 2nd grader I was said,"I want it shorter, please!" The moment those scissors touched my hair is when I just face planted on the ground. WORST DECISION EVER. But hey, I could never do monkey bars anyway, so I don't know why I thought I would be any good at metaphorical ones.
Moving on to the slide. To me, the slide is the best part of the playground. It is the only piece of equipment in which you can experience the thrill of falling without dealing with the pain of landing. This represents my faith to a "T". Although this may seem contradicting, me going down the slide represents me undergoing a spiritual high. When I am going down the slide, I realize all of the amazing things that my faith has to offer. Church, Church Camp, Happening, and other Diocesan events represent that one impatient kid, you don't even know, who pushes you down the slide when you did NOT ask them to. Although you were shocked by what you experienced at first, when you land you are thankful they did it. That "kid" makes me want to experience the highs of my faith over and over.
Because the line at the slide got a little to long, I had to finish up my time playing at the jungle gym (where I am now). Just like the kids I was watching said, "The jungle gym is the lookout tower where we can see everything we want to do." I am at a point in my life where I need to be focused on college and the next steps I want to take in life. It took 12 years of grade school to climb up the weird wavy ladder, that no one ever knows how to use, to get to the top of the jungle gym. But I made it. Now, I can see the entire playground. I can see all the opportunity that life has to offer me, as well as all of the different paths I can take in college. Now I just have to decide what I want to play on next.
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