Mom was always afraid that I’d fall

And scrape a knee

Or bust out my front teeth

But we never cared

We had every nerf gun there was

And ran around the house losing bullets left and right

Every night

We had call a cease fire to round up

Styrofoam darts

Before the dog gets to them

After school we raced down the expressway to make it to Jui jitsu

Sitting in traffic impatiently

Trying to get to the north side by five

Threatening to jump the median

To put on our gi

And practice technique

So we could take it home and patiently put each other in a chokehold

So that I’d know

What to do if someone ever tried to mess with me

Then we tried boxing

You held the bag and I punched as hard as I could

Clenched fists in pretty pink gloves

You acted like I was tough

But we all knew it was just good cardio

As I got older it got hard to find time

Where our schedules aligned

But every father’s day

We do something to bring back the rush

I remember when we went indoor sky diving

That was the day we said we should go real sky diving

And I think I saw mamas heart leap out of her chest

Then there was tree climbing

We spent hours in the branches

Moving from obstacle to obstacle

You went first on the scary ones even though the idea was mine

To go up that high up in the first place

We took a hundred foot zip-line down to the ground

And then we went horseback riding

And it made me think of that time on uncle Don’s ranch when my horse got a bit wild

And even though I was a scared child

You encouraged me to get back on the horse

Because if I didn’t I’d live the rest of my life afraid

Caged in by the fear of things getting a bit wild

We lived those moments to the fullest

And made memories that I keep with me

Molding me into the type of person that isn’t afraid of anything

And excited about everything

Looking at life as a series of opportunities

To have fun with the ones you love