We must first make progress in our own lives if we wish to make progress that can affect the world

I've been taking Psychology this year, and as the year ends, I've been reflecting on some of the things we've learned about. If you're familiar with psychology terms, you'll know what a "critical period" is. For those of you who don't know, allow me to explain. A critical peiod is a time span in which a child must learn specific things such as language, potty training, bike riding, and rollerblading.

When it comes to the critical period for rollerblading, I have been completely deprived. I never learned how to rollerblade. When my mom tried to teach me, I refused to let go and try it on my own. I've been like that with many things throughout my life. I've almost always been afraid to try things on my own. I've gotten much better about this now, but when I was around the ages of five to eight, trying new things was terrifying for me.

When I was little, I was a very cautious kid. I was always afraid of getting hurt. It took me forever to learn how to ride a bike without training wheels because I was afraid of falling off the bike. No matter what anyone told me, they couldn't talk me out of being afraid. If anyone tried to force me to do anything before I felt I was ready, I would give up completely and refuse to continue.

Such is the case with me learning how to rollerskate/blade. I don't remember much of the ordeal except the fact that I cried A LOT! I remember I had a pair of rollerskates that you could put on over your shoes because you could adjust them. According to my mom, I enjoyed gearing myself up to get out there and rollerblade, and I liked to skate as long as I held on to my mother, but as soon as my mom made me let go, I would freak. I would LITERALLY CLING to her, sobbing and crying. This is the only part I remember of the whole rollerskating ordeal. The anxiety of letting go, of trying things on my own; of leaving the proverbial nest to find that I have wings capable of soaring to heights that I'd never imagined. I was so afraid of falling that I couldn't see the fact that I had wings capable of taking me to greater heights. I didn't trust in my own wings.

Well on Saturday, my little brother bought a new pair of rollerblades. They're really nice, I must admit, and a part of me had wished that I, too, were able to rollerblade as well as he. So on Sunday, my brother attempted to teach me how to rollerblade. It would be an understatement of epic proportions to say that it was merely amusing. I don't think there's a single word in the English lanuage to even begin to describe how hilariously, embarrassingly funny it was!

I felt like Bambi when Thumper tried to show him how to ice skate. I was wobbly, unstable, I couldn't balance, and I was flailing my arms about like an agitated seagull in distress! You just had to be there.

Anyway, it took me all of ten minutes to cross the two feet of linoleum where my front door begins, mainly because I was laughing and squealing the whole time. It took me another ten minutes to get outside to a little patch of grass outside my window. I was doing just fine on the grass and carpet, but as soon as it came to the merciless surfaces of linoleum and concrete, I would not let go of my brother. Then he had me hang onto a column outside my house and told me to skate to the other column, which was about three feet away. After mustering up all my courage, I let go of the column and made my way to the other column. My brother tried not to laugh as he said "Don't bend over when you skate. You're sticking your butt out too far and it's throwing your balance off even more. Try to stand up straight, and don't lock your knees."

Are you kidding me?

But instead of protesting, I tried to take his advice and attempted to do as he said.... I toppeled over. Needless to say, I'm not a Weeble. ("Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.") I fell down multiple times, and I wobbled relentlessly.

^^^Weeble.

Finally, as I was trying to turn around and head from one column to another, I biffed it. I landed right on me bum. Right smack on the left cheek. My brother then took off the rollerblades as I said "I'm done for today."

Even though I gave up at the end instead of pushing through it, the simple fact that I even attempted to rollerblade was a BIG DEAL for me. That's more than I'd done in almost 13 years. So seeing as how I haven't even attempted to rollerblade since I was FIVE, I think that simply having a go at it yesterday was pretty progressive of me. I mean no, I'm not changing the WORLD by trying on a pair of rollerblades, but it was a big leap in my own personal life to get up the courage to try it again, seeing as how I pretty much missed my critical period for learning how to rollerblade.

Well i just thought I'd share this funny story of mine with you all, and hopefully you'll get something out of it. There IS a lesson to be learned. The moral of the story is: Believe in yourself. Trust in your own wings, and you can fly anywhere. Don't be afraid to do things on your own, even if it means learning the hard way, or falling down along the way. We must all learn to pick ourselves up once we fall, dust ourselves off, and have another go at it. It's all about persevereance, motivation, determination. Without all this, there is no way any one person can become progressive. We must first make progress in our own lives if we wish to make progress that can affect the world. This all might sound cheesy and cliche', but it's true. The power is in you.