Have you ever wanted a nice cold popsicle on a hot and humid day? Well I certainly have. About three years ago when I was visiting my grandparents, Meme and Papa, I had a lesson in flexibility. The weather was humid, it was the kind of humidity that suffocates you and makes you sweat when you walk out the door. But the perfect pair to a humid day was a boat ride in Papa’s boat. My favorite water toy was the blow up couch that could fit up to three people. My sister, Esther, was riding on the couch with my cousins Henry and Emalyn. Henry and Esther were the wild ones who always stood up or did tricks. As we were going down the  Suwannee River, we passed the river house and we saw Meme trying to tell us something from the porch. We drew closer and she yelled, “ After y'all are done on the river you can come in and have a popsicle!”

 Papa looked at us and joked, “ I don’t think any of these kids want a popsicle!”

“ No! We do want a popsicle!” all of us kids screamed, smiling.

“Alright then,” Meme responded, “five ice cold popsicles coming right up!” After confirming a popsicle, we sped up Suwannee River. As we rounded the turn in the river we heard a sputter,

 “Hop in the boat kids!” Papa exclaimed.

All of the kids started to panic 

“Oh no! Hurry!” Once we were all in the boat we slowly started to head off to Hart Spring, we had just entered the springs, and were getting on our snorkel masks when the boat’s engine cut off. 

“That can’t be good,” Papa said nervously. Because the water was so shallow, we decided

to push the boat over to the repair dock. All of the kids helped even though Papa did most of the work. Once we arrived at the dock we pulled it up out of the water and Papa started to fix the boat. While we waited, my sister, my cousins and I went snorkeling in the crystal, clear blue water of Hart springs. Soon enough we were off and back to the river house. 

We had just docked the boat when Meme walked up to us top break the bad news,

“I’m sorry that this happened but we need to leave the river house,”

“Why?” all the kids wondered.

“There are warnings that the Suwannee River might flood tonight,” Meme reported.

“But we will probably be able to come back on Friday or Saturday,” Papa reasoned.

“Okay…” all the kids moaned. Everyone pitched in to help pack up. We got all the way out of Gilchrist County when I remembered what we had been promised,

 “What about our popsicle?”

“I think that I have something even better for when we get home after dinner.” Meme vaguely retorted. 

“What’s for dinner? When’s dinner?” All the kids pestered.

“Mac n’ cheese and it’s only 3:30 PM?” Meme laughed answering the rapidfire questions. 

When 6:30 finally arrived the kids shoveled down our mac n’ cheese while watching Dinosaur Train. When we were done with our dinner we begged Meme for the surprise.

 “Okay, Okay,” she relented. “Your surprise is…” Meme paused for suspense, “Brownies and vanilla ice cream!”  

“Yay!” All of the kids cheered.That night my cousins, my sister and I were all content with our brownies, ice cream and Dinosaur Train. 

That night I learned an important lesson in flexibility. I learned that you should be patient and flexible with change. Just like the saying goes, ‘good things come to those who wait.’