YCL Art

I Remember Being Covered in Bugs

As a child, I loved to learn and explore. One of my favorite things to do was go digging in the dirt, wading in the swamps, and climbing through the trees looking for bugs or anything creepy crawly. I especially liked doodle bugs (aka rollie pollies), caterpillars, grasshoppers, worms and butterflies. Fear of bugs was not an issue, though with age I’m not as ecstatic about having one of these creatures crawling on me without prior knowledge. All of

God’s creations have always fascinated me, especially how they work together to survive and the different mechanisms that evolved so these creatures could survive in their own elements (ie a grasshoppers amazing ability to hop super long distances in comparison to it’s size, a doodle bugs ability to roll into a tiny ball of protection, a caterpillars ability to consume unbelievable amounts of food just so it can turn into a beautiful butterfly.)

I still revel in this fascination to this day. I found a huge slug on the sidewalk a few months ago and was absolutely floored by it’s size (it could easily cover the entire palm of my hand) and gooeyness, i couldn’t help but stop to observe it and then proceed to poke it gently with a stick. It’s funny how now, I can’t imagine picking up a slug with my bare hands, but as a child I wouldn’t of missed out on the opportunity…

I Remember the Trampoline Park with Sprinklers

So back in the day, there was a trampoline park down the street. I think it cost like $1.50 for 30 minutes and for an extra .25 cents, they would turn on the sprinklers, which today, really sounds like an extreme safety hazard.

When you first arrived to the park, you had to walk down a path covered by a breezeway and white gravel on the ground. On the left side of the walkway were these signs with crazy looking zombie creatures painted on them. Next to each zombie was a handwritten list of potential hazards and various warnings related to trampoline jumping. The phrase “at your own risk” still comes to mind when I think of a trampoline.

I can’t tell you how many times I fell off or hit the side rails on the way down. I was far from athletic, let alone a gymnast, but I sure tried to flip and turn my airborne body in every direction imaginable. Surprisingly, I never broke anything, just some minor bumps and bruises and lots of  silly laughter…