My Childhood Adventures with Rivers and Sheep

 

 Once upon a time, there was a little girl that had a life full of adventures.
She liked to swim in the river. The deepest part of the river was as deep as a two story house. That’s how I saw it when I was little. My brother and I loved to play and hang from a tree branch and jump to the river and swim.

 I was 10 years old at the time and my brother was around 13 years old. I always saw the world from my own perspective. I pretended in that time I was Pocahontas and my adventures began in the river.

 My family, on the other hand, believed that the river was dangerous for a girl of my age since I was ten and growing to be a young woman. One day my father called me and told me that I can no longer go to the river with my brothers because I was already grown and it was dangerous for me to be out there.

 They didn’t want anything to happen to me but I insisted on going to the river with my brothers. Since I was so persistent, I told them I will stay close to my brothers, and I will do anything, such as the chores, and I will not complain. They decided to let me go to the river with one condition: I had to dress like a boy so I could be safe, according to them. I didn’t understand but I agreed because I love to be close to nature. My parents found the solution: every morning I was Pocahontas, but I dressed like Tarzan.

At that time, I did not understand why they loved to complicate the world for a little girl that only wanted to have fun. I believe that my parents were paranoid because I was practically raised in the river since I was 5 years old. I didn’t understand why they would not let me be myself.

But now that I have kids, I understand the dangers of the world and I become that person that my parents were when I was little, with my kids.

How I saw the world when I was a girl was full of adventures waiting for me to have fun. We pretended to be characters from cartoons.

I remember when my little brother was 7 years old and he decided that he was going to go with us to the river, so he can be cool by doing something dangerous, according to him. My older brother was 13 years old and I was 10 years old. We decided to go swimming and my little brother was 7 years old. He decided to stay close to the river to find something fun to do. He was playing with three water snakes; he had one around his waist and the other two were in the ground. When we come back from swimming, we saw a snake in his waist that was moving. We asked, “What do you think you are doing with that snake on your waist?” and he responded, “I’m playing with it. Anyway, it is dead.” My older brother removed the snake from his waist and he threw the snake back in the river. The three snakes were alive and my little brother thought that they were dead. These adventures in the river end soon for me. I think that my parents just were buying time in order to find something and keep me busy at home.

This Tarzan thing went on for a couple of months. After that, I had to stay home because I was growing up, according to my father. My father decided to give me a sheep so he could keep me busy doing something at home since I couldn’t go to the river anymore. My family didn’t raise sheep, but my father had a friend who did. One day, I remember I was sad and upset because my parents did not let me go to the river anymore. My dad surprised me with a baby girl sheep and I was no longer alone at home. I named her Muneca, meaning “doll” in Spanish, and I ran around the house with her. She was very smart and I taught her to listen to me. When I called her name, she knew it was time to play. She came to me and followed me all around the house. If I stopped, she stopped, and if I decided to rest and sit, she would sit with me. She was the most wonderful gift that I received when I was a little girl.

That was my life when I was a little girl full of adventure. I remember I couldn’t stay still and I was full of energy. Now that my family is older, we get together and talk about our childhood adventures and laugh. My childhood was wonderful because I viewed the world without worrying. I know that my parents were always there for us, even though we were a big family. From these experiences, I realized that my parents were right about the world being a dangerous place. My view on adults changed for the better. I thank my parents for the way the raised us. Today, I’m the person that I am because of them.