Today is the Day | Teen Ink

Today is the Day

November 18, 2007
By Anonymous

"Today is the day", said Tyler to himself as he stood before the monkey bars. Of course he meant that today would be the day he completed the monkeybars in their entirety. This was the thirteenth day in a row that Tyler came to this spot at this park to reach his goal. Why this park you ask? Well, as it was, this particular set of monkeybars was by far the tallest, longest, and scariest of them all. Tyler was only six years old, but kids nine years of age didn't even dare attempt this stunt.

It all started two weeks ago. Tyler woke up as he always did, got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. He grabbed the phonebook, slapped it on the cold hard wood of the dining room chair, and started filling his plate. This is when it all happened.. Jimmy, Tylers eleven year old brother laughed so loud, and so obnoxiously that Tyler couldn't help but ask what was so funny. Tyler wasn't expecting the response he got. "You, you are the funny thing. Every morning you sit at the table you grab the same phonebook and sit on it. Maybe if you were taller you wouldn't have this problem." Tyler was furious. He commented back that he was plenty tall for his age, and that in fact he was tallest in his class. The conversation went on for some time. It finaly led to Jimmy daring Tyler to complete the afore mentioned monkeybars, and Tyler stubbornly agreeing. He had one month to be ready.

Usually Tyler didn't take dares, in fact, he thought they were quite silly. He saw them as cheap ways for people to trick other people into entertaining them, and do things they normally wouldn't. This time was different though, he had to prove his brother wrong, for the simple fact that he had never been able to before. Last week after getting three-quarters of the way across and falling for what seemed like the millionth time, he almost gave up. Luckily at that exact moment, a kid who was only two years older that Tyler was at that very moment jumped up, and completed the trick with ease. Imagine, an eight year old boy, only two or three inches taller than you easily doing the one thing you had been trying so hard to do so swiftly. That gave him hope.

So he tried and he tried and never gave up. Now, here he stands thirteen days since the dare was set in motion. He hopped up on the first bar, and 1-2-3-4.. He was going to make it! 5-6-7 only five more to go.. 8-9-10-11. He felt a sense of victory as he reached for that last bar and finally finished what he set out to do. He ran home, got his brother, brought him back. That was the day that Tyler was right, and there was nothing his brother could do about it.


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