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Yellow Slides: Who are you becoming? - 1st in a series by Lindsay Kyle The smell of baby lotion. Sunscreen lathered on 1-inch thick. The plastic bottoms of my purple flip flops melt to the Louisiana sidewalk. My towel barely hangs on to the chair. I throw it in a hurry. I have to meet the water. The banana yellow slide invites me. The metal staircase burns the bottoms of my bare feet. Scorching. Finally, the hose water is icy cold. A little squirt of water tumbling through a peel of yellow into the 3-feet deep blue. I flew. For a moment, I fly. Then, immersed in cold chlorine waves. Tangled mess of hair. Burning eyes. My brother, laughing with feet in the water and watermelon-faced. The plastic yellow slide at the neighborhood pool holds my childhood’s summer secrets. Something is still alive in me that longs to have that moment back. The innocence of simple days. The feeling of protection from a mother who patiently let me play while she flipped through a magazine. The occasional glance from her when I called out, "Watch me! Watch me!" The belief that sliding down the yellow slide would never get boring or old. I wasn’t able to understand how quickly life would pass or how soon the day would come when I would feel too old to slide anymore. In those days, I certainly wasn’t able to understand how precious summer moments were to my mother. So now I am grown. Now, we are all grown. And if you are like me, then perhaps you understand my struggle with wanting the same approval from my mother. In some ways, I am still the child standing on top of the slide, begging the quiet, shaded woman to watch. How do we become adults? When does the moment come when the world tells us we are too old for yellow slides? Does a moment ever come when we realize we are our own person, separate from the ones who raised us? Perhaps you are in a place where you are just beginning to wonder who you are becoming. Perhaps you are concerned that those who love you most won’t accept who you are. The challenge of this journey is to learn what it means to accept yourself. The result gaining a more deeper understanding of Who created you.