Recently I joined the Lions club through my university, and we do a service project once or twice a week, and this week we not only graded glasses, but we helped refurbish the Lions club pavilion in the park. Usually our service projects are held inside, and we do things like grade glasses, or prepare wooden toys to be sent around the world to children who need them, but the refurbishing was a bit different.
When I said yes to helping, I didn't realize that we would be working up on the roof of the pavilion. I found that information out when I arrived and one of the men working on the pavilion said to climb on up and pointed to the ladder. As I gripped the first rung of the ladder, the man asked me if I was good with heights, and the only thing I could really say to answer him was "Well, I guess we'll find out."
I won't say that being afraid of heights is a fear of every short person, but it is by far one of mine. I am okay when I am up there, but getting up and down terrifies me. I usually avoid high places if I can, but there was no avoiding it that day.
When I got up there, I wanted to get as far from the edge as possible, but it wasn't an overly huge roof, and there were 16 men up there working with me. That's right I was the only girl, and I was by far the smallest person up there.
I felt like I had to prove myself to all of these guys that were up there just casually working away, so I tried to do anything that I could to help. When we first started I mentioned that I didn't think I was actually big enough to be able to work on a roof, but I guess that didn't do much, because I was there to help, and that's what I planned to do.
Not only was I up high where I was already a bit terrified, but we were literally tearing off the shingles from underneath our feet. I let the men break up the shingles, because knowing myself, I would have tried too hard to move them, and thrown myself off the roof.
The more frequently I got up and down from the roof, the less scary it was, and I even found eight cents up there, and honestly that is way more than I would have made if I hadn't gone over to help with the project.
About halfway through the day, I kind of wished that I had my violin with me so I could literally be the Fiddler on the roof. Not that I am super great, but I honestly won't get an opportunity to do something like that again, and it would have been really cool to say that I was able to do that.
Throughout the day, the men that surrounded me were mentioning how impressed they were with my work ethic and my willingness go up on the roof. I felt super macho. I am not going to lie about that. What other girl can say that she spent all day up on a roof with 16 guys and basically proved her worth among them? It was super cool!
Later in the day they fed us all steak dinner, and all of the guys could point me out as that cute little college girl that came out to play with the big rough and tough guys on the project. Seriously the best feeling ever to know that I accomplished something this big.
I have heard people say many times, "Go big or go home." For me that day, it was definitely "Go big, then go home."
#ShortStories #LittleWin #Adventures
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