Tomboy

My grandma often complained to others about me. “If there’s a hole on the ground, her leg has to get in there. If there is a single rock peeping out of a wasteland, she has to trip on it. There is no ditch she has not fallen into, and there’s probably no tree she has not slid down from.” The insistence with which she used the ‘she has tos,’ did not escape anyone.

I can’t blame her. My finely brushed ponytail would be askew in seconds. The beautifully pressed dress would come back with rips in less than half hour from the time I wore it. You see, I would have crawled between barbed wire fences meant to keep curious visitors like me out. Even before ripped jeans were in fashion, my jeans were always ripped at the knees. "You must have saws for knees," was the standing joke.

There was not a tree I could not climb or a stream I could not dip my toe into. I learned many things by myself. I learned to bike way before I was old enough to sit on the seat. I learned to climb the rocks and mountains. Scraping and skinning joints were normal. I was not afraid of heights, depths, adventures...or falling. Most of all, I learned this valuable lesson all by myself. Getting into something’s always a lot easier than getting out of it.

I’ve grown out of all those shenanigans, and I laugh when I see the faded scars. Each one has a memory.

Life can also be unkind, and if it must allocate scars to people, let them always be like mine.

My loving mother would feel sad to see my wounds. “Why can’t you be like the other girls?” But, I wore the scars proudly like a medal. Everytime I came back with a new scrape, I would be taken to the old neighborhood doctor. His hands often trembled and I suspected his memory integrity. But, he always remembered me. The old man truly hated the job when I was hauled by mom for treatment and dressing. He would have to run around with a tetanus injection needle and bandages in the small office, chasing a young girl screaming to high heaven.

His perplexed question was the same to my mother, “How does she come back with all these wounds and scars without tearing up and yet manage to create this much drama for a mere shot?”