In the 5th grade at a sunny, county fair, surrounded by livestock, rickety carnival rides and greasy curly fries, I learned what composure meant. I spent countless hours raising a 250-pound white pig. My nerves were wired when he and I entered a grassy show ring with 12 other kids and their giant hogs. Anything could happen, so I watched my pig like a hawk as the judging commenced.
Now, I suppose that as an 11-year-old, I still had some wiggle room to throw an absolute fit when something didn’t go my way, especially since this was my first 4-H show. My first mistake was neglecting to keep the corner of my eye on the peers around me, as a pig happened to bolt between my legs.
Life has good and bad surprises. Nobody enjoys the bad shockers. When life doesn’t go as planned, it’s hard to maintain calm and poised. Voicing outrage, frustration and irritation would be far easier. But, easy doesn’t necessarily mean right.
Babies, toddlers and young kids throw the loudest tantrums and they’re not afraid to do it in public. We’ve all witnessed the mom and child in a grocery store. Child wants something, mom says no, kid starts to cry, mom still says no, and the child loses control of every emotion.
Imagine if for every bad grade a college student received, we stomped around campus, tears running down our faces, and we awkwardly contorted our ligaments into weird positions (i.e. “stiff legs”). It’s a hard concept to envision because we can hardly fathom anything of that kind happening. Bad grades, red stoplights, drowned phones, missed flights – they happen. If we threw fits about every little thing in broad daylight, public spaces would be incredibly loud, annoying and depressing.
That “life plan” we all envision when listening to our favorite songs, writing in journals, or graduating with a certain degree, doesn’t exist. It’s a good thing that most teenagers and adults don’t throw huge fits; nonetheless we still do in our minds. We kick and fume and pound on the inside of our heads, beating ourselves up because “it” didn’t go according to plan. The schedule didn’t work out and now all we can do is mentally scream in furry and punish ourselves.
Life, moments, stuff, or whatever you want to call it, is messy. It’s horrible and irritating. It’s infuriating and stressful. But, at the same time, it is a wonderful blessing. A roller coaster is only fun because it twists, turns and spins in weird directions. If a roller coaster sped off in a straight, flat line, it would be boring. No one wants to jump on that ride. Life is a roller coaster; it makes you feel sick during some twists, knocks the wind out of you on other twins and in the end, all you can remember are the laughs. Why do you think people keep riding that stressful contraption?
As a first time pig shower, I had a dramatized vision that I would take the blue ribbon with flying colors. My pig walked calmly by my side and the pressure from the eyes in the crowd did not shake my concentration. Little did I know that another youth’s pig decided to go on a little adventure.
As I rounded a corner and that pig ran between my legs, he picked me up and I rode this pig backwards as he scampered across the square ring in front of a giant crowd. Eventually, I fell off and stood up, trembling, shaken and utterly embarrassed. My face turned tomato red and all I wanted to do was cry, yell at the other kid and run out of the ring.
Instead, I picked up my show stick, brushed the hair out of my face, and stiffly walked across the ring to find my pig and continue showing. My blue ribbon dream was crushed, but because I forgave myself for the circumstances that were out of my control and maintained my composure, I still placed.
Those random, bolting pigs exist in all of our lives. If we continually scream about the fact that it happened, we might forget that the ride is actually a little amusing and a lot of fun.