Saturday, September 22, 2012

Oops! I did it again...



I am clumsy.  
This is not a new thing for me.  I have always been clumsy.  (Funny word – say it several times and see how silly it sounds to you: clumsy clumsy clumsy clumsy clumsy)
Did that make me any less active or adventurous?  No.  I played tag with all the other kids.  I was just the one who tripped over her own feet a bit more often.  I climbed trees too, but was the one who had to do so more cautiously, more slowly, clinging to the branches just a little tighter.  I lost my grip once too often and fell far too many times.  Did I climb hills & mountains?  Yes, but I seemed to always come home with many bumps, bruises, and random scratches than all the others.  Combined.

Luckily I’m tough.  I would be in pain, but I would simply go on.  I was having too much fun to stop.

At school I found all sorts of things had it in for me.  Doors would move just in time to clip me as I went through.  If the door didn’t the knob or frame invariably reached out for me.  Lockers swayed toward me so that I would bump against them.  Stairs would change their height just as I stepped so that I often tripped.    

I’d like to think that clumsiness is something you outgrow, and for many I guess that is the case.  But for many people with ADHD we do not.  At the CHADD (Children and Adults with ADHD) conference I found so many others who were just like me.  
Last night I found once again that even at 35 I have not yet outgrown this.  I went to a play with 6 of my friends.  We were seated in the balcony, and our view of the front of the stage was partially obscured.  Two of my friends moved up another row and claimed that it did have a better view.  I watched another friend gracefully step up over the chairs to the next row up.  They beckoned to me to come up as well.  I looked to my left to see if I could exit the row and just go up the stairs.  Nope.  To my left my friend was holding a baby and it would have been inconvenient for her to have to move to let me past.  So I decided to try to step up like my other friends did.

It did NOT go well.  My foot slipped on the movie theater style chair, and it folded back up trapping my foot underneath.  I felt myself falling backwards, but just then my friend Julie grabbed my arms.  She held on tight while I disentangled my foot.  I managed to get up to the next row then, and she asked me if I was all right.  I chuckled and said yes, and then added, “Well, that was embarrassing!”  
Later I went down to the lobby to get a drink of water, and as I ascended the stairs to return to my seat one of the stair moved toward me just as I raised  my foot to set it upon it.  Down I went.  Again.  I couldn't do anything but laugh again and feel grateful that all my friends were still seated inside.  

Today I boast a couple of rather nasty scrapes on my shin, and few bruises too.  I have not outgrown my clumsiness, but my sense of humor to handle it has grown.

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