There’s a good first-person story over at Let Grow. Robin Phillips (pictured) was on her way to visit her dad in Hawaii when she got bumped from a plane at Los Angeles Airport about 50 years ago, when she was 13. The next plane was the following day.
Robin spent the night eating, reading — even met a celebrity. What did she not do? Panic. She remembers the night as a turning point that showed her who she was. Here it is, half a century later and she is still grateful for it.
I’m betting you have a story of your young self when something went wrong when you were away from home and you, too, rose to the occasion. Or maybe you’ve even witnessed this in your own kid(s). Please share the tale. I am so sick of “Anything terrible could happen!” becoming the knee-jerk excuse for curtailing all childhood adventures.
Let’s make, “Anything could happen!” into a cheer. Yes! When you’re out there, meeting the world — anything could happen! That is exactly what life is about!
I was about 13 when I climbed up a cliff in the Housatonic River’s ‘Valley of the Moon,’ after a rare Fern, and worried that my parents would be upset if I fell of the cliff and died. My father wasn’t there to help, because at the time my younger brother was stuck on another cliff on the other side of the river.
Unfortunately, I do not remember exactly how many years I was, but about 10-13. In general, the story is, as follows, each other was to pick up my brother from the children’s camp, and at this journey let me go with my friend. It was all good, for us it was an adventure), but it turned out that the car on which we drove broke, somewhere in the middle of the way. There were no phones and contacts in proximity, the driver who was driving us, unscrewing some detail from the car and said that it would be soon. He appeared next day to dinner, we were very happy, and began to calm down. It all ended well! He told his parents that we broke and won’t come on time.