For The Wild Ones

The story I am about to tell you is essentially a parent's worst nightmare.

Some parents get well-behaved, quiet children who are happy with the simple things in life. These children go about their journey with ease & grace. Other parents, aka my parents, get wild children. The type of children that seek adventure and thrills around every corner. These children test boundaries, experiment & want to discover the fullest potential of experiences life has to offer!

I believed growing up in rural southern Michigan lacked culture, excitement & pizazz. So I made it my mission to create what I felt I was lacking.

I mean there is not much going on in rural America. Cornfields for as far as the eye can see, you can hear the mooing of cows on every country block, & if you are lucky you may stumble upon the occasional bonfire. There are no shopping malls to hang out at & there is no fine dining or theater to expand your mind & senses.

But don't get me wrong, these are the types of towns that can feed creativity, imagination, innovation, wildness, & freedom. Leave a child in the wilderness for long enough, left to their own devices, more than likely they will leave having cultivated all of these things!

Take that same child & throw them into a teenage body with raging hormones, no fear & the belief they have the ability to do anything they want... things could get dangerous!

Adventurous teenagers in rural America, such as myself, have to get really creative; and I was a very skilled innovator if I do say so myself. For instance, I consistently found ways to sneak out of the house at night to go party with friends.

Before I even had a driver's license, I would often put my big sister's car in neutral & push it out of our driveway. Once the car made it to the road, I would start up the engine & be on my way!

On a school night, at age 15, my good friend let me know his dad was going to be out of town for a couple of days, so I should swing by late that evening for a small party. I waited for everyone within my home to get tucked into bed for the night & I quietly slipped out the basement door, literally slid out of the driveway & drove myself to the party.

After a couple of hours of taking shots & smoking some Jamaican Grass, we were free birds in the night swaying our bodies to some upbeat rhythmic jams. We were living!

The dance party went up a notch when someone had the idea to go streaking in the backyard! Without hesitation, I slipped off my clothes, leaving on only a small pair of panties, & continued dancing freely under the sparkling night stars!

Then I heard one of my friends was out of cigarettes, an absolutely terrible habit that most of us at the time thought was really cool, & he was hoping someone could drive him to the gas station to replenish his supply. Being the natural helper that I am & also thinking a cigarette sounded great, I quickly raised my hand!

Before I knew it I was jumping into the driver's seat of my friend's parent's vehicle, naked, high, drunk, stoked about life, without a driver's license & ready to help a friend to the gas station.

On a Thursday in the middle of the night, in small-town rural America, there are little to no vehicles on the road. I remember this fact entering my mind as we pulled up to the only business open within a 35-mile radius of our location. I held my composure sitting in the driver's seat of the tinted vehicle, as my friend went inside to make his purchase. Only one vehicle pulled into the parking lot as I waited. This vehicle was a black car, with words running down the side & colorful lights sitting on top.

I breathed deep, waiting for my friend to return so we could safely get on our way back to the party. When he returned I gracefully pulled out of the parking lot & made it one mile down the road before those colorful lights started to flash in my rearview window. At this point, I still wasn't ready to give up my freedom, so I slipped into the nearest driveway & turned the car off thinking this move would magically make us invisible to the cop car behind us. It didn't work.

Needless to say, there I was 15-years old, with no driver's license, in a vehicle that I did not have permission to use, naked, high, drunk, & for the first time starting to question a few decisions I had made that night.

Here comes the best part, after some conversing with the wide-eyed police officer I soon found myself being picked up, right there in some stranger's driveway, by my one and only mother & father.

Besides throwing me a large T-shirt; my dear parents had nothing to say on the ride home. I waited for my lecture, I waited for my punishment, nothing happened. We got home and they simply started to walk to their bedroom. I asked if we were going to talk about what had happened in the morning & I asked how long they were grounding me for. My mother looked at me & said, "You have to be ready for school in only a couple of hours, I suggest you focus on that. You won't be grounded, that is not how you will learn your lesson." And they went to bed.

Another thing about small-town rural America, gossip runs rampant! Before you know it, everyone & their mother hears some version about everything. And this is how my parents knew I would learn my lesson. The whole town was talking about my arrest. Stories were twisted, parents thought I was the devil, some peers applauded me, others shamed me. Regardless, I walked with my head held high & although my desire for adventure & excitement never really left me, from that day forward, I started making more responsible life decisions!

My desire for thrills & exploration has navigated me towards a human experience that is rich in culture, growth, healing & expansion. I wouldn't change that for anything! So to all the wild ones - forgive the mistakes, be responsible, but remember the spark that lives inside you is pure magic & is something our world needs! Go on with your wild self!