Home of the Brave: On Doing Things Even When You're Scared

So a few days ago, I decided at least one day during spring break I would spend exploring the District of Columbia.  I determined yesterday to be the day and woke up around 9:00 because my boyfriend had left at some crazy hour in the morning (like, 6:00?) and there was some apartment inspection supposed to happen and I didn't want to be around for that.  So I left around 9:15 and headed toward the Ballston Metro Station.

I'm going on an adventure!

When I left, I wished I had packed some warmer clothes.  It was around thirty degrees and even though I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a sweatshirt over it, I was pretty cold.  I think it was mostly the wind causing the unbearable-ness of it all and I considered turning back because not only was it cold, but I was afraid.  I'd never gone on the metro myself before, never explored a city by myself before, and I am a relatively small female.

I set out with my phone in my pocket and the lanyard of my keys wrapped around my left hand, should I need to use them as a weapon.  (The plan was to swing them in the face of anyone who might attack me, like some kind of mace.)  I had, before leaving, considered bringing my camera battery charger and my iPod, but I decided not to.  The fewer valuable things I had on me the better and if I had headphones on, I would be less aware of my surroundings which could be dangerous.

I stopped in the mall on the way so I could get some breakfast at Starbucks.  I felt a little foolish because I was the only one drinking an iced coffee, but I'm not a big fan of most hot drinks, so I just sat down and kept to myself while eating my slice of pumpkin bread/cake and drinking a tall iced coffee.

From there I knew it was no turning back.  I took the sky walk over the street to the metro station, headed down the escalators and took a long hard look at the map so I was absolutely sure of my plan.  Eight stops on the orange line, get off at 12th and F, walk the rest of the way to the National Mall.

On the metro, I observed the number of men wearing headphones and the number of women doing the same.  There had to be at least a dozen men I saw throughout the day with headphones and I don't recall seeing a single woman wearing them.  I don't think it's coincidence; I think it's a result of violence against females.

I got off the metro, found another map on the street, determined my route and continued on up 12th Street.  It was a long walk, but I was excited for the adventure because, as much as I daydream, I am not the adventurous type.  I mean, I got all excited in The Hobbit when Bilbo said, "I'm going on an adventure!" and wished I was brave enough to do the same.  And here I was, doing just that.  I had no actual plan beyond getting there and everything was new.

Clinton's dress left; Bush's dress right.

The first museum that came into view was the Museum of American History.  I went in the back entrance, had my bag looked in, went through a metal detector, and was on my merry way.  I've been to this museum three times now.  I'm always hoping there will be something at least a little new, but there never seems to be any new exhibits.  I stopped by the food exhibit and saw Julia Child's kitchen for the second or third time and then headed to my favorite exhibit, which is about the First Ladies of the United States.  I'm not sure what it is that fascinates me so much about this exhibit.  I do like seeing the evolution of fashion in the Inaugural Ball gowns.  I think Hillary Clinton's sparkly blue dress is my favorite, although there are a lot of good ones in there.  Then I went to an African American history exhibit which focused on the march of 1963.  It was kind of dark and everyone mostly crowded around Abraham Lincoln's suit and hat rather than the actually important stuff and that kind of frustrated me so I left.

I stopped by to see Kermit the Frog after that, saw a wedding dress made out of a parachute of a 1940s soldier, and a baseball signed by the 1937 New York Yankees.  (I'm torn between booing and saying, "Yay, baseball!")  I decided to leave after that because there were some obnoxious teenagers shoving each other around and some confused and excited little kids running all over the place.

Although I had decided not to before, I ended up going to the Museum of Natural History because dinosaurs.  I wandered through the marine life exhibit, then a little bit of the mammals (because hello cute furry things) and then headed over to the dinosaurs.  I still am always surprised by how small tyrannosaurus rexes actually are.  I mean, they're certainly bigger than I am, but they're not exactly skyscrapers.  It was the most crowded exhibit and I was frustrated at not being able to see what I wanted to see and decided to move on to another museum.  My camera started to die in the meantime and I cursed myself for not charging the battery the night before and for deciding not to bring the charger with me.  I later realized I had my iPad with me and could take pictures with that, if need be.

The art museum was entirely new to me.  Of all three or four times I've been to DC previously, I had never bothered with the art museum, largely because people who were with me were not interested.  It was decidedly empty (not literally but there were very few people) but I got excited plenty of times walking through and getting lost in the maze-like building.  I started with an exhibit that had pieces of manipulated photography pre-Photoshop.  Then I saw some stuff that had to do with light and color.  I'm not very scholarly when it comes to art, so bear with me for now.

I saw some sculptures and some dishware along with plenty of paintings.  One of the coolest things I saw was a chalice that had been made in two different eras.  The cup of it was made in 1 or 2 BC and then the handle and base created in the 1400s.  I saw some paintings from the 1400s as well, which was really cool.

Painting of Marie Antoinette

I was mostly excited to see portraits of Marie Antoinette and Madam du Barry, both of which I've spent a lot of time looking at because of my fascination with Marie Antoinette.  It was pretty cool to see them right in front of me.

I had gotten a text while I was in the museum but cell phone use was prohibited so after I checked out the second floor for a while I went on my way and picked up my checked backpack before heading out.  At that point I realized my phone, too, was almost dead.  My boyfriend and I had planned to meet at some point during the day and he had texted me saying he'd be ready in about a half-hour.  Unfortunately, it was going to take me too long to walk back down to 12th and then down 12th itself to get to the metro, so I said I'd come by later and that my phone might die so I might be contacting him by email.  By some miracle and conservative use my phone lasted the rest of the day.

I walked up towards the Capitol building and then picked a bench to sit on and write for a while while watching some people play ultimate frisbee on the grass.  Some of them were wearing shorts and I thought they were crazy.  After I got sick of sitting still in the cold wind (and a little afraid of losing a lot of peripheral vision because I had my hood up to stay warm), I walked up closer to the Capitol building and admired it for a while before turning around.  I texted my boyfriend and told him I was on the way to Union Station to meet him and he could come whenever he had time or was ready.

I'm not sure how long the walk took me but I felt more confident with each landmark I recognized on the walk back that I was going the correct way.  I came upon the Columbia Square station where I had left the metro relatively easily and got back on the metro after examining more maps.  I made the trip easily enough, found the correct station.  My boyfriend suggested we meet at the Barnes and Noble in Union Station and, because it was recently closed, the sign was gone so it took me forever to find him after I had pretty much walked through the entire building.

Me hanging out near the Capitol building

I got a slice of pizza, having had nothing to eat since Starbucks, and a Coke and he waited patiently while I scarfed it down.  Then we went to another Starbucks so he could get a coffee and I got a piece of lemon cake because I was still pretty hungry.  We hung out together for a while and then he showed me how to get to his office from Union Station should I need to.  I went back downstairs to the food court to write for a while and ended up writing over twenty pages in my journal, just writing down what people around me were doing and planning out my novel-in-the-works (which is also going to serve as my thesis, now that I've been invited to do an Honors Thesis at my school!)

After that, my boyfriend met me upstairs in front of the not-Barnes-and-Noble around 5:30 and we got on the metro together.  I had managed to not be motion sick all day on the metro, but in the evening it was pretty bad.  I stood and stared at whatever objects I could fix my eyes on for as long as I could.  I'm beginning to wonder if how crowded the train is has anything to do with it.

We got off the metro, finally, and walked the rest of the way to his apartment.  When we arrived the smoke detector was beeping from low battery so we left shortly after to get batteries, milk (for me, mostly), and get dinner.  We had originally planned to cook but ended up going to Dogfish Head where we both got burgers.  For once, I ate more than he did -- probably from walking around all day.

We went home and I camped out in the living room on the floor while he worked at his desk.

I was scared a lot of yesterday, but at the end of the day, I had accomplished so much.  Being brave is not doing just doing scary things -- being brave is doing things even though they scare you.  And that's exactly what I did.

The Hobbit Image courtesy of Bad Ass Digest.
Marie Antoinette Painting Image courtesy of Wikimedia.
All other images mine.