Leap Year

For me, leap year meant there was an extra day in my birth month. I was always a little jealous of people who were born on the 29th. It seemed like they got a lot of attention when I was a kid in school. I thought it would be neat to only have to count once every four years when adding up my age. Now I’m not so sure. I think I’ve earned all of the years I’ve lived, not just 1/4th of them. I also like the idea of listing those things I wish I had been able to leap over rather than experience. Here are a few of them:

* Being thought I was older because I was tall for my age.
* Walking out of my Algebra class because "everybody" else did.
* Having to apologize to the teacher the next day.
* Being afraid to tryout for parts in plays.
* Stopping piano lessons.
* Eating ravioli before hiking, having heat stroke, and avoiding ravioli for years after.
* Backing out of a girl’s choice dance after the guy said "yes".
* Not getting to the bathroom in time in kindergarten.
* Getting teased in a mean way in sixth grade.
* Feeling guilty for the mean things I also said and did.
* Wearing a mustard plaster when I had a chest cold.
* Being raised as an "only child".
* Landing on my knee three times when I fell down. (Three different occasions.)

But I guess, when I think about it, I really wouldn’t pass up very many of the experiences of life because they are a part of who I am today. Hopefully by next leap year I will have leapt into, instead of over, some new exciting times.
(Many thanks to Charnae for the idea. This is a take off from her wonderful post.)