Conversation Starter

Recently, my skinned knees acted as a conversation starter. The injury was from a combination of tripping and falling onto a sidewalk (while running)and rock climbing. A great combination if you ever want knees like a five-year-old. I was at jury duty, and I'd thought that my skirt covered my knees, or at least the scabby parts. (That's what happens when you dress in a hurry and haven't made sure you had a clean pair of dressy pants ready to go.) As it turns out, the interaction was positive, as my fellow jury duty attendee was the father of a girl on the national rock climbing team. It was great to find out a little bit about her experiences before he and I were called back into the courtroom. It got me thinking about how a few years ago, I would have been slightly embarrassed about having skinned knees. I probably would have covered them up with a metric ton of Hello Kitty Band-Aids or something. (Ironically, this would have looked even more ridiculous.) But I've learned to let go of a lot of little imperfections. Most people are too hung up on their own (minor) flaws to really bother with anyone else's It also got me thinking about how I've opened up more to new experiences in the past few years. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have seen myself running more than a mile, climbing a rock wall, organizing a skydiving trip, or doing half the crazy stuff they have us doing in CG. I still have a long way to go. I realize this. But every once in awhile, it's nice to see how far I've come...not just in terms of experience, but also in attitude and my overall outlook on life. I also wouldn't have felt nearly as comfortable chatting with a stranger as I did that day. It was a good reminder that simple little things can make for interesting (if brief) interactions. (By the way, I just read Bear Grylls' autobiography, and he writes in really short paragraphs. I think it's temporarily affected my writing style. I kind of like it, though. It keeps the rambling and stream-of-consciousness type stuff in check.)