This week Froggie chose the topic: YOLO (You only live once)
First, read what everyone else had to share on this topic:
Darwin Shrugged
Froggie
Moma Rock
I recently saw this quote on Facebook and thought of it in terms related to YOLO. Obviously, you can't make more mistakes because you only have one life to live. I find YOLO to be cliché and think it was a concept created by someone with a billion dollars because they don't have to worry about money or time being a real issue. I work full-time and when I take time off for vacation, I have to play "catch up" when I return. It's not like I can just jet off to Hawaii or Europe or some other place on my bucket list. So YOLO doesn't sit right with me. Therefore, I've decided to talk about having a "do over," as there are certain mistakes I would most definitely not want to make again!
Just recently I've been talking about a day that I would like to do over. About a month ago, on Shabbat, I was all excited to go to my friend's house for lunch. We're really close and have a lot of things in common. Schedules don't allow us to see each other a lot, so lunch together is a nice treat. However, that didn't happen as planned. On the way home from shul, we were walking down the main street to get over to my friend's house. My kids were running around and not listening to me when I said to stay to the side and not get in the way of cars. (Before I go on, let me assure you that no KIDS were harmed in this situation.) I saw a car coming and they were about to cross the street without me telling them it was okay. I went to stop them and somehow managed to trip, land on the asphalt, and split my lip, as well as crack a tooth and scratch up my face. Needless to say, I wouldn't be eating lunch at my friend's house. I don't know if I was more upset about missing this lunch or about cracking a tooth.
There were some upsides to the situation, believe it or not. A friend who lives nearby offered to stick around and take me to the ER while my husband went to lunch with the kids. It was really nice of her, considering we don't hang out all that much as our schedules aren't really in sync either. There are also a lot of doctors in the neighborhood and one happened to live right by where the incident took place. While I wasn't a fan of him using rubbing alcohol on the cuts (yeah, it hurts like you wouldn't believe), I appreciated him being available and also giving me my space to just nurse my wounds, while also checking in. I also got a lot of time to read that day, as the kids were safe and sound with my husband and my friend was also content to read her own book. We did chat from time to time and she helped me feel better about things. I'm also really, really, REALLY glad it happened to me and not my kids. They wouldn't have handled what I had to go through next.
At the ER, I ended up getting stitches in my lip. In order to get the stitches, the doctor put a huge shot of numbing medicine in there first. Let me just say that an epidural hurt less than that shot in the lip. I went home patched up and looking like I just was in a boxing match. Of course, that night I had plans to see a musical with "Jack." Thankfully, he was nice about the whole situation instead of making fun of me. (He and I like to tease each other though.) I looked awful and tried to keep my face covered with my winter scarf, even indoors. Of course, some people I know from shul ended up sitting down right behind us! At least they only thought I had a cold at the time. I still enjoyed the show and am glad I didn't miss out on such an entertaining experience. (I guess that's where YOLO comes into play...I will go out in public with a battered looking face to see a musical with a close gay friend.)
A few other upsides were that my tooth was easily fixable, thanks to my amazing dentist and the plastic surgeon I saw about my lip was really nice. It could always be worse, right?!? My face has since healed up, other than being a little pink in some spots, which is fixable with cover-up and powder. Only my BFF and my mother-in-law got to see pictures (my MIL just saw my repaired tooth and one of my halfway healed pics though). Yes, I'll go out in public that way but I'm loath to share the pictures with anyone else.
The people I'm close with in the neighborhood found out about the incident and they were all very nice and concerned. One even sent me a "get well" card. Other people didn't mention it at all or were nice about it if they did. So I'm glad this happened now instead of when I was in junior high or high school. I would have opted to be homeschooled for a few weeks until this cleared up otherwise! And I would have never left the house at all! (I know that sounds dramatic, but I got teased really bad after injuring my eye a few times.)
In any case, I'd still like that "do over." It was an awful thing to have happen (even though it was minor in the grand scheme of things and I could have hurt myself in such worse ways) and I still feel unsettled by it. I'm sometimes afraid to go walking to shul on days when we host lunch or have a meal out. I worry it will happen again. The other day, I only slightly tripped but caught myself and I felt all anxious from it. So it would be nice for the person who came up with YOLO to allow for "do overs" in the grand scheme of life. The question is "When will someone invent a non-fictional time travel device?!?"
Anyway, tomorrow celebrates a day that I would never do over, so come back to hear about that!
3 comments:
I'm with you! Someone needs to create a time traveling device! In a a sense, no one would feel the need to YOLO- since we'd be going back in time and re-living events. You only live as many times as you choose to time travel? ;) Great post!
That was a horrible fall. I would be nervous every time I took a step after that. I don't care much for the term YOLO. Like you mentioned, not everyone can just get up and just do as they wish.
Sadly, I think life has to include those days we'd love to do over -- makes us appreciate the times we get a chance to YOLO! Sorry about your scary fall!
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