Water Park

Every weekend during my childhood summers I would wake up throw some clothes on and go play with the neighborhood kids. The search for my of that day started by me hopping on my bike an riding it around the neighborhood. Pressing the doorbell at every house, I would hope for a child my age to appear and want to play. “Do you want to come play?” I would ask with a reply that normally was a no because they had non-existent homework or a yes, you can play at my house. We never played at my house!

On one particular day we decided to play outside on a swing set. The majority of the neighborhood kids had nice wooden swing sets, classically having a round green slide built into the “fort”: a fabric covered triangular pole support system.  Each yard had the typical garden hose and sometimes a good old sandbox; I loved to play in the sand when I was a kid and I definitely loved water.

My friends and I had quite the imaginations as children and this day we decided to play waterslide. One by one we would take turns climbing the ladder up into the fort. We would sit down on our bums and proceed to go down the slide amidst friends pouring water on our head. We thought it was pretty cool that we could have a water park in our own backyards. Next up was my turn and only the unthinkable happened.

I climbed up the sturdy yellow ladder into the fort which was decked out with a  heavy duty green fabric roofing to match the slide, sat down and was ready to slide. We made sure the slide was wet enough and ready for me to go down. Next thing I know, I’m sliding down the slide having water poured over me as I’m squealing in excitement. It was a blast. After that round though, it was my turn again. “Jordan go again”. “Okay”, I thought to myself.

Up the ladder I climbed again and down the slide I went again. I thought it was the best thing that happened to me. Splashes of crystal clear water flying past my eyes as I whizzed down the slide made the ride so much better. When I reached the bottom of the slide, I stood up, wiped my eyes off, spit the water out that had reached my mouth and tasted something gritty. What just happened to me was absolute cruelty from a same age peer who noticed my differences and wanted me to leave. They had mixed sand in the water and forced me to go down the slide and into their trap. My “friends” went on to tell me that they didn’t do any such thing. The sand covered my hair and inched its way through ever little crack between the strands. My body was covered in disgusting sand and rocks as I stood there clenching my teeth, gnawing on yucky sand that I had ingested. Crunch went my teeth!

What could have been a fabulous time with friends turned into a nightmare purely due to lack of acceptance and exclusion. Most often people think of exclusion as one not being permitted into a group for one reason or another, but exclusion goes much farther than that. Exclusion goes to the extent of people putting on a mask to show you they like you. The rebel then acts in disguise and does unthinkable acts to get you out of their face. Many people will look at these situations and think they are just mistakes, but they are not. Kids no better than many parents may realize. Exclusion isn’t just the act of being ignored, but it’s the act of disrespecting one to the point of segregation and discomfort. Being segregated by your peers in uncanny ways is unacceptable.