Friday 30th of July 2021
I guess it’s time for me to join ‘When I was a kid’ challenge. Thank you @Judith1969 for tagging me in this fun challenge. In her article @bmjc98 asked us to write about ourselves from when we were little. So here goes:
I hated liver with passion!
When I was a child I very much disliked liver. It was like a punishment if I knew liver was for dinner. I remember lamenting for as long as it took to be excused from eating it. Truth be told, I still dislike it till now. I just don’t like the taste and the consistency of it.
I was a great student.
In Poland if the average of the subjects for the year reached a certain number, the year end certificate was marked with a red stripe. This was an award for the best students. In one of the first years of school my dad said that if I get the red stripe he will buy me a Barbie doll I wanted. So I did my best to achieve it. After a few years, I didn’t play with Barbies anymore, but the habit of always achieving red stripes stayed with me till the end of college. At Uni I wasn’t in the top anymore. Maths turned out to be quite different from the maths I knew and loved from college. I barely made it through the first year, but it was easier later on. I guess the yearn for studying stayed with me also as I became an adult. Nothing beats the step learning curve.
I lost my ear.
When I was 8 years old, as every year I was spending my summer holidays at my grandparents place. Their neighbours had a big dog - German Shepherd and whenever the neighbours' daughters went to pick up eggs from the chickens, I would volunteer to go with them, so I could play with their dog. One of those days something went wrong and the dog attacked me and bit off my ear. When the ambulance arrived to take me to the hospital there were people from all nearby villages gathered in front of my grandparents block. Until today I wonder how so many people knew what had happened in such a short time and came all the way to see what happened? That was before the times of phones.
The doctors in the hospital did their best to put me back together, but my body rejected the ear. I could have had another operation once I turned 18, but somehow it never happened. I won’t lie and say it doesn’t bother me anymore. It does. Every time I meet someone new, there are curious looks. I prefer if they would just ask, so I can tell the story, but instead they look and I get uncomfortable. I guess that’s one piece of my past that I haven’t dealt with properly yet. Maybe I should just have that damn operation?
I dropped my little brother out of the pram.
My family, including my brother, always tease me that I was so jealous of my little brother when he arrived and all attention was on him, that I dropped him on the pavement on purpose. I admit, I was a bit jealous, but not to the point of hurting him. Most likely it was due to my clumsiness.
I thought I was fat and ugly.
Seriously, I wasn’t fat. I am a bit fat now, but not then. I also wasn’t ugly. Not sure why I thought that. Once I got together with my now ex husband, I gained much more confidence and learned to accept myself the way I am.
I was the poorest child in class.
Well, what can one do? My dad was not a very responsible parent and he loved to drink, so he spent most of our money on alcohol and eventually would get himself fired from work in the coal mine and our situation changed from bad to worse. He tired other jobs, but the result was always similar.
I was looking for a dream land.
I’m really unsure where we got the idea from, but my next door neighbour and I were convinced that there is a dream land and if we can find an entrance to it, all our dreams will come true. We climbed the trees to check for the secret gates. Once we even went to a nearby village on foot. First we swam in a lake, then walked through the fields, which hurt our legs badly, just to check that one tree we have heard about in hope of finding that damn gate. We were in so much trouble for this!
I was a great dancer.
I’ve always loved dancing. I would dance to anything danceable, but I remember this music video that I loved watching.
My friend and I learned how to dance lambada from this video and danced at our parents' parties to the amazement of everyone. Love for dancing stayed with me throughout my life. I joined a few different dance groups as a young teen and performed at some local events. Then of course there would be night clubs and finally salsa in my adult life. My life would be rather sad without dancing.
I knocked my teeth out!
That’s another mystery for me. I know I can be clumsy and very excitable, but how the heck did I not see the big metal structure and run into it? I really don’t know. Big chunks of 2 front teeth were missing and I also ended up in a hospital with a concussion.
I dreamt of being a professional figure skater.
To be precise I would be a figure skater in the winter and perform in a circus as an acrobat in the summer. In my childish head, it was totally logical, because ice rinks can be naturally created in winter and in summer I’d be bored, so I would be an acrobat then. Makes total sense right? In a child's mind only!
Uff… I was milking this one for quite a few days. I never thought it would be so difficult coming up with 10 facts from my childhood. I would write 2 or 3 and leave it for another day and so on. I guess there is a lot I really don’t like to remember from my childhood.
Until next time 💙
Hi Fantagira, I enjoyed reading about your childhood. That was one great memorable milestone of a person's life. Good or bad, they were just great and important, because those experiences mold you into the beautiful person that you are today. Thank you for sharing them to us, my friend.