Oops…LOL

Street Smart: the experience and knowledge necessary to deal with the potential difficulties or dangers of life in an urban environment.

It was a cold winter evening, I was sitting at my Great Grandmother’s old, wooden table with my family. We had just finished a game of Polish Poker. I had only played a few times beforehand, so I was pretty pumped when I beat the “oldies”. We gathered the cards and put them neatly into their individual boxes. It was now snack time. My Nana Mcginness displayed all kinds of yummy snacks before us at the table. From there, we talked and laughed until it was nearly time for bed. We discussed a number of things, but one particular thing will remain in our memories forever. Just a simple misunderstanding of the meaning of a word.

My cousin Makayla had said something and quite honestly I can not remember what it was, but my grandmother replied saying ” Well that’s very street smart.” It was only seconds after that I responded to my grandmother’s reply saying, ever so confidently, “Oh I’m VERY street smart! I can get you anywhere you want to go!” Then the laughter began and the embarrassment started to set in. I was then told that the word street smart had nothing to do with navigation, but rather to do with being aware of one’s surroundings. At first, I was a little embarrassed. I actually felt very dumb, but mistakes happen. I actually found it funny after the fact. To this day, it is still brought up and laughed about. For instance, just last week I was helping navigate my mom to the Florida Mall. I’m very good when it comes to remembering how to get to places. I sometimes refer to myself as a human GPS, but that’s besides the point. Anyway, my grandmother decided to make me aware that I was very “street smart” while guiding my mother to the mall. She was poking fun at me, and I have to say it was funny. I mean we all laughed at it. As much as it’s going to get old, I truly believe this will be a running joke in my family.

I have to say that I have never been that fond of laughing at my mistakes, but laughing at my misunderstanding felt good for a change. Yeah, I may not have fully understood the meaning of being street smart, but it makes for a good laugh whenever it gets brought up, so in my eyes it worked out for the better! Plus I learned what it actually means now, so it’s a win win kind of situation. It also helped me realize that seriousness is not the answer to every mistake that is made. Being able to laugh at a mistake almost makes the mistake not seem that bad. At least, that’s how it worked in my case.

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