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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, it just occurred to me that yesterday I picked up a package delivered from Canada while wearing a t-shirt from Canada, but I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a story about my most disappointing trick-or-treating experience.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
If you’ve followed this podcast for a while and heard much about my childhood, then you’ll recall that my parents divorced when I was 9 years old. Shortly thereafter I moved to a small town with my dad and brother. Needless to say, it was an odd and sometimes difficult adjustment for me.
Things were different in what seemed every way possible. I had no friends and had to try to make new ones. The structure of the school lessons and classrooms were different. My after school routine was different. Even evenings and dinner time was different.
I never really felt like I fit in. It was weird and awkward. I didn’t feel like I was an outcast or disliked, just not really fully accepted, even as a fourth grader. By the time fifth grade came around I had made a few friends, one of them was my best bud, James.
I don’t really know why I didn’t spend time trick-or-treating with James. Maybe I was supposed to and would have later that night. Maybe he was at a party or with his mom. Maybe I did and I’ve just forgotten that part of this story. All I remember is that I was alone.
That seems odd, doesn’t it? There’s no way I would let my fifth grader go trick-or-treating alone. But then again, this was a small town, and times were different back then. Maybe I did go alone.
I’m pretty sure that this tradition is no longer a tradition in this small town, but back in the mid 80’s, it was a tradition for kids to converge on the one block strip that comprise our downtown area and assault each other with eggs and shaving cream.
The kids all enjoyed it. It was like a big food fight. It was relatively harmless. Afterall, no one ever died from getting hit with an egg or shaving cream. The bad part came in the aftermath. The eggs would rot and stink up the whole block for a few days and the whole area was a mess. I’m guessing that’s why the town eventually put a stop to it.
My brothers were older than me and they wanted to go take part in the downtown egg fight. I didn’t have any interest in that. I failed to see how getting a face full of shaving cream was better than getting a bag full of candy. In fact, I still think that a bag full of candy is better than a face full of shaving cream.
So when the time came, they headed out for the egg action and I headed out for the candy action.
My quest for sugary treats started off as you would expect. I went to the nearest house, rang the doorbell, said the magic words and got rewarded with some form of chocolate or corn syrup wrapped in a thin layer of plastic. The next few houses were also just what I’d hoped for. Liked a well trained lab rat, I rang the bell and they delivered the candy. Looking back at it now, I’m not quite sure if I was the lab rat or if they were.
The 6th or 7th house was the one across the street from my best friend, James. It was an odd house. I always thought it was odd. It was clearly not as old as the rest of the houses around it and it was custom built. it looked like it had never quite been finished. In fact, it’s not there anymore. Now it’s just a vacant lot.
But that night it was there and it was occupied. It was a big, two-story house. The front door was right in the middle of the front of the house just like you’d expect. The second story master bedroom must have been right above the entry because there was a big balcony that jutted out from the second story right above the door.
I thought nothing of it as I approached the door and rang the doorbell. I don’t recall if I was rewarded with candy or not. What I do remember is that as I walked away from the front door and came out from under the balcony, I was attacked from above.
It was moist and soft. It hit me right on top of the head and poured down the front of my face and the back of my neck. I put my hand up to my face to wipe it off and it was more than my hand could manage. It was thick and sticky and it was all over me.
I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t even think about the fact that I had just walked under a balcony and I was utterly confused as to where it came from. I knew that I had been the victim of a prankster, but I had no idea where they were hiding or how many of them there were.
Scared, I began crying and ran all the way back home.
Once I got home I went to the bathroom and identified the substance covering my head. It was shaving cream.
I cleaned myself up, sat on the couch, and pouted the rest of the night. Just like that, my Halloween was over.
Here’s what I learned.
In the days that followed I realized that I made a mistake that night. It wasn’t that I ventured out alone. It wasn’t that I was scared off by an unknown and unseen prankster. It wasn’t that I ran and cried all the way home.
My mistake was that I allowed it to defeat me.
Why didn’t I go home, clean myself off, and then go back out there and get more candy?!?! Do you know how many sugary snacks and delicious goodies I missed out on because I quit? I would never get those goodies now. My opportunity had passed and it would never return.
Now this may not seem that important, but to a fifth grader, it was very important. To a fifth grader, candy is about as important as anything. Halloween is the biggest candy day of the year and I had blown my chance.
Now, as adults we may not ring doorbells and ask for candy, but we knock on doors and ask for jobs, dial numbers and ask for dates, and we make decisions and ask people to follow.
I can guarantee you that as we do those things, we will fail, we will get rejected, and sometimes we will get ambushed. Our first instinct may be to run back and find cover, or safety, or get back to what we find comfortable. We may just dust ourselves off, but leave it at that.
Big mistake.
Don’t just clean yourself up and go back to where you were, clean yourself off and get back out there. Learn all that you can from the previous situation and use it to your advantage.
There were 3 other directions I could have followed that night if I’d only had the sense and bravery to get back out there, but at least I got to unwrap this powerful life lesson that I’ve used as motivation ever since.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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