If only everything I touched turned to gold instead of shattering into a million tiny pieces.
I always had a bad habit of accidentally breaking things. This notion passed through my mind as I stared down at the shattered Christmas ornament, appalled. It happened just a matter of seconds after my mom told me specifically not to touch anything. She walked off to some other aisle, and in the same timeframe I grabbed at the blown-glass replica of the Eiffel tower, only to watch in slow motion as it fell to the cold hard ground and flew apart into a billion sparkling different pieces. I couldn’t help myself; it was just too shiny that my fourth-grade mind couldn’t resist enough to refrain from at least touching it. As usual, one simple touch quickly transformed into one simple death drop, and yet another item had been destroyed at my hands. Similar events had occurred many times before, including the rubber duck filled with bubble-bath goo that spewed everywhere after I squeezed it too hard, the mini train set I backed into at a toy store, and that one time I accidentally stepped on the fresh pedicure of my best friend’s mother (the last one was the most embarrassing by far).
In spite of the humiliation in admitting my act of stupidity to my mother and apologizing to the store clerk, I finally realized that if I had just listened to my mom, I never would have made such a fool of myself to begin with. Although I do not recommend taking every bit of advice to account, being a good listener and always paying attention can only help prevent careless mistakes.
It’s much easier just to listen than to do something highly unintelligent and look like a fool afterwards.
