Counting Down #20

To Recap: I'm just sharing 25 riveting, life-changing, fun facts about my life to bring inspiration and joy to my friends and/or stalkers. A.K.A. I am being horribly narcissistic and writing about stuff that only my mother probably cares to know...

#20... Hanging with the Wrong Crowd.

So, growing up...I spent my formative years at a little Bible College in Knoxville, Tennessee. My parents were highly respected employees of the school. Not to mention, just a lovely couple that had devoted their lives to following Christ.

So here's what I remember of what can only be acknowledged as a 8 year old kid having a pre-tween, Christian crisis. Let's set the stage.

I went to a tiny school that had no more than 100 kids in it. I lived in a beautiful home just a few yards away from where my parents worked, so after school, I would go home or hang out in the main building on campus.

I had some good friends...a lot of whom had parents that worked at the school. But I also had the tendency to hang with the troubled kids too...you know...the one's your mom tells you not to hang out with.

So...one day, I'm hanging with the good kids. Upstairs in the main building of the college campus. Somebody said something to me that hurt my feelings, so I replied, "Shut your damn mouth." RECORD SCRATCH. ROOM IS SILENT. ALL EYES ON ME. And then some girl (whose face I can remember, but name I can not) says, "I'm gonna tell your mom"...and she rushes downstairs to my mom's office.

Knowing I couldn't stop her, I pulled a Forrest Gump, and just started running. I finally got hungry and figured I should head home at some point. I can still remember my mom standing in the kitchen, putting something into a pot on the stove. And she very calmly said (without looking at me)... "do you have something you want to tell me?"

To which I replied, "Mom... I know that "Suzie" told you I said a bad word today, but I didn't. I was talking to Suzie, and at that very moment, I thought of my Uncle Dan, and I said, "Shut your DAN mouth." Oh, how I swore up and down that is what I said. My mom knew better.

.......Hanging with the bad kids......

There was 1 boy - I think his name was Eric. Maybe Kevin. We'll call him Kevin. He wasn't a part of our "Christian" campus. He lived down the road. My mom told me he was "bad news." I thought he was funny.

He'd come around our neck of the woods every once in a while. One day, he dared me to pull down my pants and moon the neighborhood boys. The good kids. The Bible Professor's son... The Music Professor's son. That meant nothing to me.

I still remember rounding the corner of the house where the boys were playing, yelled their names, pulled down my pants, and then ran off!!!!

I also remember writing 100 sentences that said "I WILL NOT PULL MY PANTS DOWN" on my writing tablet paper. And my parents hung it all over their china cabinet for me to dwell in my shame for days to come.

Let this be a lesson to you...be sure to keep a close eye on your 8 year olds...you never know what kind of pre-tween crisis you might experience. Heaven forbid it be as scandalous as mine!