My First True Love
As a kid, I often wondered what the people I saw around me feared the most, was it a grand scale catastrophe like a war or an attack from a terrorist? Or was it more personal like the death of someone close to them? I never answered my questions but I was convinced that whatever it was, it must have been significant to each and every one of them. Who knows? Maybe we all fear the same thing! At the age of 6, what I taught I feared most was losing my dog Zulu. To my dissatisfaction, I wasn’t as freaked out as I taught I would have been when Zulu died. I had to find something that made me feel vulnerable and scared so I resulted to watching the forbidden ‘scary movies’. I was good at being sneaky for an 8year old child; nobody was ever close to nabbing my scheme. As scary as the movies were, their effects were only as weak and short lived as Zulu so I quit on them. It was not long before I had myself believe that I was fearless so I would take it upon myself to do the thing that scared my friends. I did a lot of extreme things and soon earned the reputation as the “dare devil”. I was born into a family of 4, 3boys of whom I would coax to get anything from and myself. I was nothing less than invincible and I was sure to use my talent to the fullest in the planning of my 10th birthday. My 10th birthday was in one word EXTREME. I stared my plan the day I clocked 9. I was determined to make my birthday grand to the best of my understanding. My mother was my best friend whenever it came to inviting friends over so I decided to let her in on my master plan. I was a little disappointed when she told me it was too early to start my preparations but she’s my mom and I trust her judgment so I took about five months off doing what I do best, not caring much. I decided to remind her of my big one zero just in case she forgot. She told me to get a list of the friends I wanted to invite specially and at that moment, I knew it was on! Although I knew she just said anything to get me off her back, I didn’t care. She gave me the green light and I was ready to step on it. I had my list of 20 names ready by 6am the next day. I tried to wait patiently for everyone to wake up but my anxiety got the best of me. I tiptoed my way to my mother room being as smooth as ever and came up with a scruffy idea. I adjusted the alarm clock to wake her up earlier and I gave myself 10 minutes to escape the crime scene. I don’t know what I did wrong but before I could make my way out the door the alarm went off. She was mad for the first time in a while. I hardly taught about my preparation after that day and months passed by very fast.
A month to my birthday, my mother finally mentioned my party and without being tardy, plans for my party were rightly fixed in place. On the 21st of September, my birthday morning, I rolled out of bed with the biggest smile on my face; I hardly even slept the night before. Everyone had roles to play in decorating the house except me. The balloons were already up and the decorations matched the color of my dresses. I had 5 different outfits in total for the day all dazzled with a touch of purple and white. The 4 beautifully wrapped boxes was the second thing I noticed right away, it was no doubts that I was going in to have a good day. I was very much ready for my big one zero. Once the party started everyone came to wish me a happy birthday, I didn’t even think I needed their good will wishes, the day was as perfect as it could possibly get. I had caught Femi and his friend-Tayo, with the side of my eye, playing with a branch that had fallen from the tree in the backyard. I was just happy he was having a good time and suddenly, to my absolute dismay Tayo took a swing at Femi and hit him right above his eyes. Femi’s loud scream drew everyone’s attention and he was out cold the next second.
I knew something terrible had happened once I heard my mother scream out those three words; ‘call an ambulance!!!’. The party ended as fast as it had started. All the parents literarily raced with the ambulance to the hospital. At that moment, I was scared. I never taught my brother could have caused my heart to ache like it did, I felt the beat of my heart in my feet’s. This was it, I had finally found my terror. I realized how much danger my baby brother was in but the fact that his situation scared me made me fascinated. I could not believe what I had desperately searched for all my life was in front of me the whole while. I froze as my rollercoaster emotions came rushing. I’d burst into tears and then I’d start laughing a second later. It was a good 3 hours before the heart easing news came. He was going to be okay. My 10th birthday really was my most memorable childhood event for 3 reasons. 1; my party was the bomb, 2; I was finally a ‘big girl’, and most importantly, I found my first true love - my brothers.