Each week in the Kindergartener’s class the teacher gives everyone a helping assignment. The kids seem to take a lot of pride in these assignments because it’s a responsibility specifically theirs for the week. Someone will be the calendar helper, the door holder, the messenger, the lunch helper, etc. This week the Kindergartner’s assigned job is to be “Miss Tidy.” Apparently “Miss Tidy” helps clean up after snack. Yesterday she helped straighten up the rest mats. Basically whenever something needs tidying up, you just call on “Miss Tidy” to get to work.
Where has this idea been my whole parenting life? I’ve been over here asking the girls to clean up their rooms, put up their shoes, straighten up their toys, etc. If only I had been assigning someone the role of “Miss Tidy” or “Miss Dinner Helper” each week, maybe they would take some pride in their job and actually do these chores instead of pretending they’re completely unable to hear my voice? I’m telling you the adage is true: Everything you need to know about life you learn in kindergarten… or at least from the kindergarten teachers.
Another thing I’m learning about life is how important it is to keep working through our fears. For some reason, when I was younger I just assumed that people who were older than me {teachers, parents, grandparents, etc} didn’t have all that many, if any, fears. As someone with a natural tendency toward anxiety and a myriad of fears both rational and irrational, I think I hoped that fear itself would be something I would sort of outgrow.
Well, this has proven untrue. I find myself here at age 39 with most all the same fears I had as a child. Hopefully I handle them with a bit more maturity, but they’re still alive and well. For example, I have a fear of heights. For this reason, I’ve never been a big fan of flying. If I’m going to have to be thirty thousand feet above the ground, I’d sure like to be in control of the situation. And, since that’s not an option, I have to be medicated.
All this to say, last weekend we went to Gatlinburg to try out a new attraction that just opened there. I had read about it online and was excited about taking the girls and seeing the mountains from a new vantage point until I saw the means by which you have to get to the top of the mountain. You have two choices for riding up the hill: an open air chair lift or an enclosed 6-passenger gondola. For someone who hates heights and didn’t have medication on hand, these options sounded awfully similar to: Hades or hell.
In the end, we chose the gondola because we could all fit in one and our youngest passenger doesn’t need to be anywhere near an open-air option. Sadly, the 3rd Grader shares many of my fears, so she and I were panicked together. About ten feet off the ground I was sure we had made a terrible mistake closing ourselves up in this little red contraption without air-conditioning or any proper means of escape. I know it’s ridiculous, but I had to fight off a full-blown panic attack with the aid of chewing gum and a subtle awareness that I needed to act like an adult in this situation.
The majority of the people in our party thought the gondola was no big deal:
This picture from the ride up doesn’t really capture the height or the feeling of helplessness I was feeling when we stopped and started swaying in the wind while they resolved a loading issue at the base of the mountain.
Twelve long minutes later, we made it to the top where the views are as breathtaking as the ride up was for some of us:
Once at the top there are a few shops, an ice cream parlor/bakery, and soon there will be an amphitheater and a full-service restaurant. There’s also a memorial walk where you can see pictures and read about the wildfires that struck the area last fall.
The girls enjoyed the treehouse play area:
And, the series of swinging bridges {also higher off the ground than necessary} that take you from one side of the area to the other.
For those who are age 7 and up and 70 pounds or more, there is a zip line option that allows you to zip from the top about halfway down the mountain at speeds I’d rather not be going unless I’m enclosed in a car. But, to each their own amusement.
I can only imagine how scenic the views will be from the top of this place in a few weeks when the leaves turn. I won’t be ready to get back in a gondola quite so soon, but those who are will be in for a treat.
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