Rock Climbing

I remember when I was 10 my town was having a Fourth of July festival in the towns center and I went with my mom, my aunt and uncle, and two younger cousins. Well, there was face painting and cotton candy, there was Olympic tournaments on the football field and everyone seemed to be having fun. My family and I got to this one part of the festival where there was this huge rock wall placed near the fire station. I had always been interested in rock climbing and adventurous things of that nature but I was young so I never got the chance, until now. I was waiting on line and I went to give my mom my glasses to hold and she looked at me and handed my glasses back to me. She said to me “Gabi you can’t do that”. I thought, why am I not behaving myself, did I do something wrong, are we going home? I asked her why and she said with a face almost as if she thought I was stupid for wanting to try it, then she spoke. “You just can’t do it Gab you’ll slip and fall.” I told her I’d be wearing a harness, problem solved right? Wrong. I was chubby when I was little, I had finally been eating properly and I guess my body showed it. I never thought I was fat though, it wasn’t until she told me I was without really even saying it. After I told her about the harness I pointed at a girl, whom I now know was skinnier than myself, and I said “She’s doing it” and then my mom said “she doesn’t have a belly”. Mortified, I took my glasses back and sat down next to my mom and watched my cousin climb the wall and jump back down. This was the first time my mom ever put me down and it still proves not to be the last. To this day I’ve never been rock climbing. -GG