I Thought I Would Never…

I remember playing a game as a kid, mainly it was one of those games that girls play late into the night at slumber parties… right after they called the cutest boy in school on the phone, played a round of truth or dare, or talked endlessly about their hopes and dreams. After all that, right before everyone would finally give out and their eyes were fighting the urge to close, came “I never…”. The answers were usually related to young girl thoughts — “I never… cheated on a test”, I never… kissed a boy under the bleachers”, “I never… smoked a cigarette”.

My thoughts took me back to this game and the intimacy it gave to friends — to girls — as we felt open and available to share our thoughts and concerns and dreams with each other in a playful way, with no judgments (but often with laughter and occasionally a few tears). I thought of how that game changes, as so many things change, as we gain experiences and grow older. I thought about gathering some of my closest friends and introducing a new game, one that would give way to our experiences and free us to share and continue the dream (and laugh and occasionally cry). A game fitting our experiences, “I thought I would never…” would be the new game, a game I’d like to play.

I’ll start:

I thought I would never…

• jump off a bridge.
• swim across a lake, naked.
• return from a date at 7:00am after sitting in a park and watching the sun set and rise and naming all the constellations.
• drive a car off a mountain.
• touch a hammerhead shark.
• join the Peace Corps (more on that later… maybe).
• bake a 5 layer Red Velvet cake.
• be the mother to 3 gorgeously intelligent kids.
• smoke a cigar.
• start a blog.
• become friends with complete strangers.
• build my dream home.
• sell my dream home.
• get divorced.
• go to Hawaii.
• ski barefoot.
• tell anyone the things I find myself saying.

Our games change as we get older, but the point… the intent of the games remain — to open up a discussion among friends, sisters. I hope that each year I am able to look back on my life and add to my list because there are still many things that fall into the “I never” category and I’d like to change that. I’d like to be able to look back soon and update this with tells of travel and friends and dates. But, for now, I’d like to ask you a question — pretending of course that we’re all at a large slumber party (I would imagine our slumber parties now would have wine and sushi and chocolate… of course chocolate). So, grab your wine and tell us all, “I thought I would never…”

Picture From Kind Over Matter