Choose your fights wisely

By Staff
Scot Beard
Often in life we are blindsided with news we are not expecting.
This information seems to come out of nowhere and leaves us speechless as we try to comprehend what we have just heard.
If you talk to people who are old enough to remember the event, they can tell you exactly where they were when they heard President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed.
People can also tell you where they were when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 happened.
While the news I got on New Year's Eve did not have the national implications as the previously mentioned events were, it was almost as shocking.
Last Wednesday my wife, Erin, had to have minor surgery, and my mother-in-law waited at the hospital with me during the procedure.
We talked with the doctor after the surgery and headed to my wife's room to wait for her to get back from the operating room where we began talking about 2008.
A few moments later, Erin was wheeled into the room and the lady assisting her asked my wife if she wanted something to drink.
As the lady scurried off to find a Sprite, my Erin turned to her mother and said, "I beat her up in school."
My mother-in-law and I exchanged puzzled looks.
While this is not the first time my wife has told me about getting into a fight, it is the first time I got to meet one of her victims.
During high school Erin had a reputation as a bit of a brawler. Talking to her friends, she was not a sissy slap fighter, either – she loved to ball up her fists and unload her fury.
Though she was not a bully, she did not hesitate to throw down if the situation called for it. One time she beat up the daughter of a couple planning to purchase her parent's home.
Her mother – who apparently thought the fighting took place off school grounds – asked why she had never heard of this.
Still groggy from the anesthesia, Erin said she was not suspended because of the incident, but the lady that wheeled her out of surgery – we'll call her Victim – had been suspended.
Erin went on to tell us that one of the Victim's friends had been calling Erin's boyfriend at the time. Erin confronted the girl and told her to quit calling him.
Shortly after that confrontation, Victim made a scene in the lunchroom calling out my wife and saying she was going to take up for her friend. Erin, without missing a beat, said, "Yeah, but who is going to take up for you?"
Erin then proceeded to beat the snot out of this girl.
I can't wait until I have a child that gets into a fight so I can tell them this story.
It teaches a valuable lesson – be careful whom you beat up because they might be in the operating room one day while you are on the table.