Cheyenne Brown is a sophomore majoring in biology (pre-vet) at the University of Kansas. But she wasn’t always the studious college scholar she is now. She was once a daredevil.
It was a summer day much like any other – lots of time spent outside, sweating and getting their feet dirty as they played. But when the ground got a little too boring, Cheyenne and her brother decided that it was time for something with a bit of a higher altitude. Somewhere that they knew, deep down, they weren’t supposed to be. Survival instincts are easy to ignore when you’re having fun.
After a bit of fancy footwork, climbing through windows, and laughing, the siblings had overtaken the great mountain that was their house. They stood on the roof, gazing out over the neighborhood like kings. There wasn’t ever much to do from this vantage point, but the knowledge that they were there was always enough to keep them coming back.
But this time, as Cheyenne and her brother looked out upon their kingdom, they noticed something slightly out of place. Glaring up at them from the ground were two faces that would make fear run in the veins of any child. Their parents’ angry expressions made them want to do anything but climb to the ground and face whatever punishment would befall them.
***
The sofa was not, in itself, a very scary object. Many naps had been taken there, and it was a good place to watch cartoons. However, on this dark day, she was very afraid of it. After being yelled at for a few minutes that felt like hours to her guilty conscience, Cheyenne was about to be taught a lesson on the dangers of climbing on roofs.
She climbed up onto the sofa as her parents looked on, arms crossed, and anger still radiating from them. She gulped as she climbed onto the back of the sofa, trying to hold on the best she could with her feet. Cheyenne fell back onto the couch before she could even completely stand.
She tried again, to no avail. And a third time. She was starting to see what this was supposed to teach her.
Cheyenne was allowed to stop trying to balance on the back of the sofa once her parents were satisfied that she had learned how easy it was to fall off of things. She said goodbye to the death-defying roof climbing, thanks to the fact that she got in trouble. At least, she gave it up for the time being…
“I used to climb out on the roof of our house with my brother all the time, then I got caught one day and it was v bad.”