by Colin C. Coad
7/2/05
I have a 12-year-old sister. She is innocent, driven, and fun. When I have nothing to do, I can always go find her and we inevitably produce something that, for us, defines entertainment.
On a midsummer's day she and I left fearlessly to visit our town's excuse for a downtown. It offers little to do but eat and spend large quantities of money on trinkets worth the same as a dirty sock. We locked our bikes and began our adventure on foot. (For future reference, bikes and shoes are the only way to travel - they allow for quick getaways and creative routes). We didn't know what would happen. Some of the best things in the world came to be because someone did something without knowing what would happen.
In a few moments we found ourselves trespassing on the roofs of the nearby shops. We climbed up there because it beckoned to us. The heights, the shadows, the illegality of it all screamed out to us to come join them; leave the ground and come LIVE.
Our sandals didn't help, but we conquered about 5 or 6 edifices in the busiest part of our city. We shimmied up walls, jumped gaps between buildings, and put some forgotten fire escapes to use. Only our creativity and the laws of physics dictated our actions.
We didn't stop there. Never stop there. If anyone stopped there, wherever "there" is, the world would be half what it is now. We held the door for people exiting the nearby movie theater. We climbed the stairs feeling pure anticipation. Would we get caught going in the out door? Was discipline and reprimanding in our future? We were almost there. In another moment the theater was to our right and the bathrooms to our left. We were too early for the next showing - suspiciously early. I whispered to my sister that we had to kill time by familiarizing ourselves with the bathroom.
Five minutes later, after washing my hands three times and playing with my cell phone, it was time to move. We swiftly slinked from the bathroom to the theater, with nothing but stony confidence showing on our faces. We sat down inconspicuously in the middle of the theater. It didn't matter what the movie was. It mattered only that we were there. We had earned it, in our own, vivacious way. As the film began, the uneasiness slipped from our guts into the past. We were sorry to feel it go: with every second our hearts pumped adrenaline into our system, we knew that this was how it felt to be alive, free, and rebellious.
I'm a bad influence on my little sister, I know. But we did it. It is done.
Whatever you do, do it with enthusiasm, style, and originality; do it like nobody's ever done it before; do it like it will be you're last chance; do it like it will mean the difference between life and death; do it like it will save the world from aliens; do it like the cops are chasing you; do it like it will free the slaves; do it like it will change the world; do it because it will make you feel alive.