FaLliNg

I have always been afraid of falling. Down, that is. Even when I was a little child. I don’t remember myself actively exploring the world around me. Unlike other kids who climbed trees and stood on swings or caught fishes in the drain and dissected insects, I was acutely afraid of the world. Or rather, I did not feel I had a right to mess with things of this world, that seemed so huge and insurmountable to me through my little child’s eyes.

I was always the prim and proper girl. I sat feet-first down the slide. I never tried to stand on the see-saw. While others played for the thrill of playing, I played because I had to. And the time when I was blindfolded and told to “catch” my classmates, I wandered so far off from their hushed whispers that I fell down the stairs.

Will there come a day when you have fallen down so many times that it doesn’t hurt anymore?
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