I don't know a single person that throughout their childhood listened to everything that their parents had to say about being safe. We all grew up hearing “don't do this, don't do that” and always getting yelled at for things as little as not brushing your teeth before bed, or not looking both ways when crossing the street, or getting that “don't talk to strangers” speech. Anything your parents would say to keep you healthy and safe. Every once in awhile we would do something without our parents knowing, thinking we might just get away with it. We all did rebellious things at some point throughout our childhood.

Watching your child learn how to ride a bike is one of the happiest moments of a parent's life. It opens things up to a new beginning showing that the child has grown up. Giving a kid a bike is almost like giving a teenager a car to drive. The parents pray every day that nothing bad will happen and hope that their child won't do something stupid, like go 20 over the speed limit, things like that. Same thing applies to a child with a bike. The one thing my mom always told me was “don't be a show off, you’re gonna get hurt.” In that moment I thought “what could possibly happen while riding a bike?” I was so oblivious and me being the rebellious kid that I was, of course I was going to be a show off. I would be cruising over curbs, going fast down hills, tearing up the grass, anything I could possibly think of to make people think I'm “dangerous.” Summer was the prime time for me riding my bike all through the neighborhoods of Darien. I was always told though “Don't bike too far Alyssa.” Of course my response was always “Okay mom I get it.” My neighborhood friends and I  would bike around all day until the sun would go down, just like any kid in elementary school would do too. Being outside, all day, all night, was always my thing cause I have always been the outdoorsy type. My neighbors and I decided to bike one day to get ice cream on a sizzling summer day. After getting ice cream, all filled with sugar, a crazy side of me was unleashed. I was swirling through the Sequoia Lane on my bike with my friends.

They all kept telling me, “Alyssa be careful you're gonna hurt yourself.”
Of course my response was “I'll be fine guys I know how to ride a bike i'm not 4 years old!”
It was all fun in games until I fell behind.

My step dad owns a bus repair company so occasionally he would have to bring a bus home and park it on the street for the night, which blocked vision from the front of our house. With everyone already ahead of me, I tried to get there attention.

“Guys watch this.”

We all laughed until the moment I knew, I messed up. The words to describe that moment was “swivel, swivel, boom.” At that moment I had swiveled so hard, hit a rock, then flew ungracefully over my handlebars landing splat on my face. Not only did I get the wind knocked out of me, but my teeth too. As I was laying in the middle of the street, feeling as if I was hit with a truck, with my friends shouting for help, and soon enough my mom and my step dad ran outside in a panic. I was very unaware of what had happened, due to feeling very dizzy. My mom then picked me up, and ran to the kitchen as I was screaming in shock of all the blood on my body. My mouth gushing, teeth missing, and all I could here is 10,000 voices asking me if I'm okay.

The funny thing I will always remember from this incident was my step dad in the street looking for my two missing teeth. I was sitting on the countertop, unaware of which teeth I lost due to my mouth being filled with gushing blood. All I was worried about in this moment is that my two front teeth were gone and that I would never be able to make friends because I thought “who would wanna be friends with girl that had no front teeth,” I was so embarrassed, not even scared about the fact that I could have broken a bone. The most embarrassing part of this moment was all the neighbor kids in my kitchen just watching my mouth drip with blood, including the boys in my grade too. I had never felt more embarrassed in my life.

A few hours after everyone calming down, including me, I could finally see my mouth again. My mouth was no longer brimming with blood, and I realized I had nothing to worry about. My mom sat down with me in the kitchen and we had a long talk about “showing off” still showing affection towards me as I was still in a lot of pain. As I was being consulted, I was presented with my missing teeth they found in this street. Thankfully it ended up being the two teeth beside my front. I couldn't help but laugh at how worked up and embarrassed I was and everyone in the room laughed with me too.

There were definitely a few things I took from this experience of mine. One, don't freak out and hyperventilate because getting worked up doesn't help. Two, I shouldn't have been embarrassed about what people think, what I should have been embarrassed about was trying to act “cool.” Finally the main thing I learned from this experience was if your parents tell you not to do something that could put you in danger for yourself, listen to them. We all were rebellious, disobedient, and riotous, at some point in our childhood and the only thing that matters about our mistakes is that we learn from them.