"A Fall For Attention"

This will be the first time I’ve shared this secret and I know my mom will be shocked if she ever finds out. Even as an adult I do not think I want to admit my truth, although it’s funny now that I think about it, back then it would’ve gotten me in a lot of trouble had my mom known what really happened. Ok here it goes, back in the early nineties I was around ten years old, me, my mom and sister temporarily lived with my grandmother and other family members. It was a total of eleven people in one house and I was always finding ways to get attention from my mom and my family members in the house. I was a very active kid and I always wanted to be seen and heard, I would do something outrageous just to get some kind of reaction from someone in the house we lived in. For example, my uncle had a Sega Genesis, and when he went to work, I would sneak in his bedroom and play his video games. One day I was playing the video game and I glanced to my left and on my uncle's dresser, I noticed he had some clippers laying there. I turned the game off and became “Curious Cathy” and started to examine the clippers.

I turned on the clippers and stared in mirror while the clippers were on, and slowly put the clippers to the right side of my hair. The adrenaline rush I felt led me to shave a small patch off, by the time I was done both of my sides were shaved off. I found it so hilarious that I ran downstairs to show my mom, because I wanted to make her laugh, well let’s just say her reaction was not what I expected. After being disciplined by my mom who was very upset, I realized I had no edges on both sides of my hair and I was banned from my uncle’s room, so I could not play his video games anymore, all I could think to myself was, “This sucks no more video games? Geez!”.

Well, did I learn my lesson? You bet I did, but it did not stop me from being “The Problem Child.” One day, I was at school sitting at my desk, and I came up with a “brilliant” idea, because I was still on a mission for getting the attention I wanted. I sat at my desk and contemplated on the idea, as my teacher stood at the board to teach, I became very anxious as I waited for the bell to ring. I played the scenario over and over in my mind on how I was going to do this. I looked at the clock and seen that it was almost time to go home, I looked out the window and saw the yellow school buses parked and the bus drivers were waiting on the kids to come out.

The bell finally rings and the kids ran to the coat closet to get their coats, I ran and grabbed my coat, I become more anxious, because I was about to do this. As I walked out of the coat closet while putting my coat on, I looked around, everyone is getting ready to walk out of the classroom, then BOOM! I “fake fainted” I hit the floor so hard and laid there with my eyes closed and I heard my teacher as she stood over me, screaming my name “Paris!” I knew at this point there was no way out of this, I had really pulled a bogus stunt, especially when I heard my teacher telling someone to call 911. I just laid there and listened to all the commotion in the background, after a few minutes I heard footstep approaching me, it appears that the ambulance has arrived and all I could think to myself was “Uh oh, momma is going to get me!”

I was strapped into a wheelchair and carried downstairs, I could’ve won the Oscars the way I acted, when I got to the hospital, the nurses put me in a room. The doctors ran all kinds of test on me, my mom came and she looked like she was so scared and confused, so I continued to lay there as if I was ill. At this point I’ve made up my mind, there is no way I’m telling her the truth, I ended up in the hospital for three days and the doctors l discovered I was Anemic and put me on iron pills. See, I needed to be there after all, still my mom does not have a clue that I “fake fainted”. Meanwhile, I was treated like royalty while in the hospital, I had breakfast, lunch and dinner, I would get excited every time the nurse walked into my room with a food tray. The nurses and doctors were so nice, I had a television in my room and I actually got the attention I wanted. Ha! There goes my confession.