Creative Energy

I channeled my creative energies as a child by swimming, participating in sports, and watching Disney movies. I some used these activities to escape the wild environment I lived in with my older siblings. As a child and still as an adult I love the outdoors and the water! I spent most of my summers at the pool or at the lake. My mom worked ten to twelve hour days at the hospital, so I spent a lot of time at the pool hanging out with my friends. My mom would drop me off at the local aquatic center on her lunch break and pick me up when she got off of work. Swimming shaped my life by keeping me busy and sometimes keeping me out of trouble. While at the aquatic center I loved to race the other kids from one side of the pool to the other. Sometimes I would imagine that I was being chased by sharks or piranhas, hoping it would help me swim faster. Now to this day I enjoy going to the gym and swimming laps in the pool. I swim now for exercise but in a way swimming continues to help with stress and releasing my restless energy. I love the water and it still and always will be an outlet for me.

 Another way I channeled my creative energies as a child was through sports such as softball and basketball. Playing sports helped me channel my creative energies by teaching me discipline and how to work as a team. Also sports shaped my life by teaching me how to accomplish a common goal by working together as a team. Participating in softball and basketball kept me active and out of trouble as a child. I believe sports helped me become more productive with my time and energy. Sports helped me release some of my built up tension and helped me go into my own competitive world. Playing the sports that I love helped me direct most of my passionate energy into a positive goal.  Now of days I do not play sports as much but, I sometimes shoot around on the basketball court at the gym. Even then I zone out while shooting three pointers reminiscing on old basketball games.

Finally, the last way I channeled my creative energies as a child was by watching Disney movies. When I was not outside or playing sports I was inside watching Disney movies such as, The Lion King, Pocahontas, and Bambi. While watching these Disney movies I would daydream and sometimes lose myself in the movie. I would imagine that I was in the film as a specific character; most of the time the main character. When my house would get hostile with all of my rowdy brothers and their friends that is when I would sneak off and watch my Disney movies. Each Disney movie I would watch I would get lost imagining that I was Pocahontas or Simba from the Lion King. I loved to get lost in every movie forgetting about reality and my crazy house hold.

My Little Memory

Growing up I was the first girl in my family in thirty five years and the youngest of three brothers. We grew up on a dirt road out of city limits; I guess my mom figured we could not get into trouble out in the country. Boy was she wrong! I was totally spoiled and pretty much a tomboy, my childhood was crazy there was always something going on like rough housing, fighting and crying. Being the youngest I was picked on a lot and most of the time I was the one crying. My youngest brother Dusty was seven years older than me and we fought like cats and dogs constantly. My older brothers Willie and Hotrod were fifth teen and seventeen years older than me.
One of my first vivid memories was when I was around five years old. It was super bowl weekend I remember my older brothers were gathered around the TV. Dusty was chopping wood in our back yard with his friend Taz. Taz was our closest neighbor and the only kid that shared our bus stop. Dusty and his friend were taking turns chopping the same log his friend had an axe and my brother had a machete. His friend Taz would swing the axe and my brother would swing his machete I watched them do this for what felt like a long time. Until my brothers machete got stuck in the log and he went down to pull it out with both hands. Right when he went down to use his other hand, Taz came down with the axe cutting my brother pointer finger off.

 I remember my brother not crying at first but running into the house to tell my mom. Next thing I remember is the ride to the emergency room, and now my brother was turning pale and crying in the front seat. I remember Dusty holding his hand with a red rag wrapped around it but, now looking back I am guessing the rag was red because it was soaked in blood. I remember thinking to myself that I was kind of happy dusty was the one hurting. The shoe was on the other foot now he was the one crying and screaming not me! The doctors were able to save his finger and attach it back to his hand. He had a pretty nasty scar he also, had to learn how to write with his other hand.

 Now that I look back I feel horrible that I felt some sort of joy behind my brother getting his finger cut off. But I did! Maybe it might be a reflection on how my brothers treated me when I was younger who knows? Now that we are older we laugh about all the fights and crazy accidents over the years. I know we all grew up in what seemed like a zoo but, I would not have it any other way. Growing up in a big family with three older brothers felt like it really sucked when I was younger, but as I get older I am starting to realize how lucky I might be.

 

 <---(At the bus stop)
(Me & Dusty)--->