Curiosity Killed the Cat

Author's Note-Curiosity is a confusing emotion, it can lead to new discoveries or it can just get you into a heap of trouble.  This narrative reflects both sides of curiosity.  Discovering what's out there and the consequences that follow.

Your surrounded by people who are all 3 feet taller than you and they're enclosing around you all trying to go in different directions.  You have to stretch your neck just to get a peek at their faces. You’re stuck in the middle of the madness.  This is what a toddler feels like, even when they're not surrounded by people.  The little things seem huge.  That's what makes them want to explore, to see the world.  Everything seems fresh and new like sunflowers after a cool spring  rain. The world is not all fun and games though.  Sometimes that hankering to explore can lead a young child into all sorts of trouble.  Going out into the world is the easy part, finding your way back home is harder than you can ever imagine.  I've learned this lesson the hard way.

Door County is a beautiful place in the summer, the trees are green and exhilarated, the apples are crunchy, and a cool summer breeze encloses you in a wonder of fresh scents.  It was all new to me, I was four years old at the time and it was my first time in Door County. I was sitting impatiently in our hotel room in Door County. My parents and I were getting ready to go out to lunch, but first my parents had to do a bit of laundry. When they told me this I groaned right along with my hungry stomach.  They took into account my stubbornness and give me a choice.  I can either go with them to do laundry or wait in the hotel room for about 5 minutes.  This was my first chance at freedom so I decide to dive in and take my chance.  I told them I will wait in the hotel room.  The looked a little concerned and right away they started telling me all of the rules about not going outside no matter what, no answering the door, no messing around in the kitchen, and again, no going outside.  They go on for about 5 minutes.  I nodded vigorously at each statement and off they go to do laundry.  I decide to be mischievous and jump on the bed.  I know my parents would yell at me, but who cares, they’re not here!  As you may know, children do not have a good sense of time and what feels like hours later (but it's really been only about 5 minutes) I'm sitting on the bed, twiddling my thumbs.  I'm suddenly filled with a sense of immense boredom.  Boredom is a child's worst enemy, as well as the parents' because when the child gets bored he or she finds more interesting things to do with their time.  The story just spirals downhill from here.

Boredom wins the battle against common sense this time.  I decide to find my parents and find out what's taking so long.  So I casually stroll to the door, unlock it, open it and now I’m outside.  It's a nice fiery 90 degrees outside.  I walk in the shade of the overhanging roof and look for the laundry room; I find it about 2 doors down.  The door is wide open but I don't see anybody in there.  My parents could have been any number of places, they could have gone to the car (the parking lot was right outside our hotel room), or they could have been in the back of the laundry room and I just didn't look hard enough.  None of these things never crossed my mind though, I decided to wander some more and hopefully find my parents.  I walked down the sidewalk until I found the entrance to the pool.  I huffed and puffed as I pulled open the heavy double doors.  The pool is empty except for the nice owner of the hotel who was cleaning the pool.  I toddled up to her and asked her if she had seen my parents.  She looked sympathetic and responded with "No, sorry" and went back to cleaning the pool.  I walked out of the pool and that's when the sadness started to set in.  As I walked slowly and sadly back to our hotel room tears began to well up in my eyes. The door was open and there were my parents.  I walked in sniffling and they ran up and hugged me so tight I nearly suffocated.  Life was good again, until my parents remembered that they were mad at me for wandering off.  I got in a heap of trouble, but I've never wandered off on my own again. 

At the time I thought my punishment was extremely unfair, but now I understand the severity of what I did and the impact it had on my parents.  What if I didn't come back?  What if somebody else found me first?  It scares me to think about these things, but it's all so true.  I now realize how lucky I was to make it back to that hotel room.  Curiosity can lead to all sorts of bad places especially if you’re a little girl trying to find her way back home; to her parents.