If they could see me now!

I was a very active kid in Cuba. I remember climbing up onto the roof on a regular basis -- that's where I kept my treasures hidden, behind a lose brick on the old non-working chimney. I used to climb up on the tapia, a wall that separated the houses in our neighborhood, and walk from my house at the beginning of the block to my friend's house at the other end of the block. It was also a handy way to get guayabas from a neighbor's tree, or platanos from the neighbor behind our house. (They knew and offered their fruits to the kids, I wasn't stealing.)

But I never had the opportunity to jump on a trampoline of any kind while growing up. Actually, I never saw one until I was an adult. Well, my sister insisted I jump on her trampoline a few years ago and I tried to get up there but there was no way my slow and stiff and heavy body was going to even get on the thing, let alone jump on it. Years of sitting behind a computer and then a bout with thyroid cancer had left me really sluggish and stiff and sore and just plain unable to lift myself unto the trampoline.

But if they could see me now! Not only did I get on it, I jumped on it, and I kept on jumping until it was dark and I had laughed so hard that I could barely breathe and my sides were hurting. I feel like I've been to a gym!