So High

Have you ever felt like you were forgetting something? Sometimes it's a calculator, or your lunch or sometimes it's as bad as your clothes! I'm sure we'd all love to hear the story of how I went to school and forgot my clothes so here goes...Well what do you know! I forgot how that goes :( But going back to my point. Isn't it annoying when at the time you don't need it you remember it? Or when you're too far away to change anything? But what can you do?

Sometimes I feel like my life would make a great movie or a really funny advertisement, like the Doritos ones you see at the Super Bowl. Like the time I was sitting in class and forgot my deodorant in first year. I was just sitting in the lecture theatre when suddenly I had this strange feeling that I was walking unprotected. When I found out, through covert actions, I did the worst thing one could do in that situation - sweat from the nerves. "What if the girl next to me notices? How will I recover from that? I'll be the newest cast on Sesame Street - Stinky!" And thoughts like that, when coupled with "Why am I so nervous? Now I can't stop myself from sweating!" just worsen the problem.

Like Monday. The weather in Barbados has been consistent throughout the year. We here know that it will rain, we just don't know when. So outside could be bright and sunny when you go into class and an hour later you're being trampled by the next class trying to shelter. Or you could decide that outside is really cold so you wear 3 shirts and a hoodie and then you pass out while liming because the rain stopped and the sun is blazing. Such is the weather in Barbados.

I woke up Monday and it was overcast. I knew that it wasn't wise to wear more than one shirt but I decided that since I don't wear black shirts to school that often I could wear one so that when I don't feel like washing I wouldn't be left with 4 black shirts waiting to be worn on the week the rain doesn't fall. So I put on my black shirt, dark and thick, and headed off to school. I went through the first class, looking all cool and feeling protected from the cold AC and then sat under a tree for an hour, liming. As I sat I noticed a change in the atmosphere. Something was wrong. Like a Prairie Dog I stuck my head above the ground and sniffed. My senses told me that there was nothing to fear but my gut knew better. Then that unfamiliar, but known, feeling came over me. I knew I'd forgotten to do something. I wasted no time in thinking that I had no protection; being vulnerable to the internal assault waiting to succeed. But then the opposition came.

"Do you remember bathing?" - "No," I said, "I was so sleepy I can't remember how I got here this morning."

(These are some of the dangers of lacking sleep). As I began to drop my shields the enchantment picked up just too quickly. I watched a movie once and the philosopher told the emperor that "he who knows the weather wins the war." The wind picked up and thrust the forces slightly over the line and that is when I knew something was definitely wrong. The alarms went off and I began to panic. For obvious reasons: I had on 2 shirts, the outer one was thick and black, I was outside and the sun was not easing up. Since this wasn't the first time it happened I just collected my thoughts, calculated the distance to the nearest store and factored in the cloud cover, humidity (the devil of all devils) and barometric pressure. Then I waited for the opportune moment.

There was but one problem. I'm not the type to leave for class any earlier that 10 minutes before and class was 40 minutes away - 3 minutes stroll. How was I going to justify my abrupt disappearance from society? It was too early to get food and I was surely NOT going to say, "Well guys I'm going to buy deodorant." I do have a social life which needs to be fed. So I tried to keep cool in the blazing heat, in the black shirt and I waited. I pretended that my heart was not beating for quickly for my liking or that I wasn't heating up inside this igloo that I built in the tropics. Thirteen minutes passed and I decided to say, "Hey guys I'm going for lunch." I got up and ran to the store. Two steps later I realised that I would have to stand in line, probably in front of someone, so I walked. Fortunately, when I got to the store it was empty. I bought a drink, something to eat and called for the deodorant.

There were 5 types on the shelf and usually, when I buy deodorant I like to smell them first to make sure it's not too girly or too manly (you know like the ones that were clearly made for lumberjacks and old men). So I asked for the brand and the cashier asked which one. *car crash*...In the state that I was in any would have done but since I would have to use it in the next month I had to smell them. Just as I was about to ask to smell them two people walked in and iPanik'd. For some reason, maybe because I had on a black shirt I said the black one.

I was fortunate to survive that close call on Monday. I had decided to take an extra $10 that day "because I may have to use it that day". If I hadn't then I wouldn't have enough for food and so, as mom said, either I would have fainted or everyone else would have. So I'm going to test out my black deodorant over this weekend and see if I'm good at rash decisions (no pun intended).