If you like this post, you can read the rest of my Distractions!
I’m about to tell you the story of the dumbest use of forty bucks that I have ever spent.
I was a twenty year old college kid, working on campus during the Summer because it sounded a lot better than going back home until school started back up.
Corvallis, Oregon is an absolutely beautiful place to live in early Fall or late Spring, but the Winter months feature one rainy day after the next and the Summer is about as dead and dull as can be because the grass is yellow and almost all the other college kids are gone.
You know what you do when you’re bored on a hot Summer day? You look for something, anything to do.
Apparently I had forty bucks burning in my pocket when I went shopping, because somehow I made it back home with one of the biggest regrets of my life: a skateboard.
Don’t get me wrong, I think skateboards are cool. Forty dollar skateboards with no modifications, no skill and a lack of athleticism are not cool.
The second day I had the thing, I decided to take it for a…what do you call it…a drive? I decided to go skating. This was a bad idea. I should have known it was a bad idea when the star volleyball player for the school, who I believe was injured at the time, told me to be careful.
I smirked and told her I would be fine. Apparently I lied.
I took the thing down the hill and found a nice empty parking lot. I was just goofing around when I decided that I knew how to make a quick turn.
This is as good of a time as any to tell you something personal about me: I do not know how to make a quick turn on a skateboard.
*POP*
I knew exactly what that meant as I heard it while hurdling to the ground.
I’m not a doctor, but I knew one thing about the human body that was relevant to this situation: When your body goes left, your right foot should not be going 180 degrees to the right.
I spent the next two weeks on crutches and the rest of my life with a bum ankle (it was sprained, which apparently is worse than a break somehow).
And the worst part of it is that I did it just because I was bored. I didn’t have a good reason to do this, I just did it because I could.
I think I’m a little bit older and more methodical in my approach to things now, but there are still times I do things that I shouldn’t just because I can.
Instead, I should have my focus be on God, because, you know, it can be.
Have you ever purchases something out of boredom just to see it all backfire on you?
