Childhood Ambition
May. 11th, 2006 02:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
semihero_pietroEvery summer, our wagon happened to find itself along a certain stretch of road just along the mountain pass. It was along this pass that each year, we happened to come across a traveling circus.
For four or five years, we would travel with this circus through the summer, the man in charge telling my parents that we could perform and dance before and after the shows and keep almost all the money we made, but give a few coins back to him for the opportunity.
We always made so much during the summers. Mom and Wanda would dance, and Papa would bang a drum while I collected the coins. And everyday Wanda and I got one coin to spend on junk food while the circus was going on.
I remember that I would get a big cone of cotton candy, then sneak into the big tent to watch the acrobats. I loved the trapeeze artists, how they would fly in the air before grabbing the bar and swinging to safety. I loved it so much that when I was nine, I asked if they could train me during the day when they practiced. I wanted to be one of them when I was older. Mama was so mad, but every morning I woke up at eight to go train.
Then one day I fell, and I bounced out of the net and hit the ground pretty hard. I ended up breaking my arm, and Papa had to take me into town to have the doctor fix my arm. I spent that summer in a cast, which isn't fun at all.
But I then decided that I wanted to be a doctor instead, so that I could fix people up. So I spent that summer reading books instead of watching the circus. It was probably around then Wanda started calling me a nerd.
For four or five years, we would travel with this circus through the summer, the man in charge telling my parents that we could perform and dance before and after the shows and keep almost all the money we made, but give a few coins back to him for the opportunity.
We always made so much during the summers. Mom and Wanda would dance, and Papa would bang a drum while I collected the coins. And everyday Wanda and I got one coin to spend on junk food while the circus was going on.
I remember that I would get a big cone of cotton candy, then sneak into the big tent to watch the acrobats. I loved the trapeeze artists, how they would fly in the air before grabbing the bar and swinging to safety. I loved it so much that when I was nine, I asked if they could train me during the day when they practiced. I wanted to be one of them when I was older. Mama was so mad, but every morning I woke up at eight to go train.
Then one day I fell, and I bounced out of the net and hit the ground pretty hard. I ended up breaking my arm, and Papa had to take me into town to have the doctor fix my arm. I spent that summer in a cast, which isn't fun at all.
But I then decided that I wanted to be a doctor instead, so that I could fix people up. So I spent that summer reading books instead of watching the circus. It was probably around then Wanda started calling me a nerd.
