I’ve played mini-golf a few times in my life. I’ve gone go-karting a few times too. Neither became my thing. There are no family traditions built around them, no trophies tucked away somewhere, and apparently not even enough room in my memory bank to hold onto all the times I’ve done them. But I remember laughing.
Years ago, I played mini-golf with friends. I couldn’t tell you where we went, what the course looked like, or who won. What I remember is making fun of each other’s form, swinging more times than anyone should need to move a tiny ball a few feet, and somehow still missing the hole.
I’ve tried the slightly more serious version too. Once, my brother took us to a driving range. Golf looks deceptively simple when someone else is doing it. Stand there. Swing the club. Hit the ball. Sure. Except sometimes you swing and miss. Then you swing again and miss again. Eventually you make contact and watch the ball travel a distance so unimpressive you wonder why you bothered. I found that more irritating than inspiring.
Golf has never really been my thing. Like baseball, it moves a little too slowly for me. Given the choice, I’d rather have something with a little more speed.
Sometimes Someone Else Picks the Adventure
Which brings me to go-karts. On a family trip, we went go-karting with one of the younger kids in our family. I remember being concerned because he didn’t know how to drive. I kept thinking he might have trouble maneuvering the kart, bump into one of us, or otherwise turn our fun little outing into an insurance claim. Then he zoomed right past us. Not only could he maneuver the thing, he looked completely confident doing it. I was secretly impressed—and mostly relieved that nobody got hurt. Of course, he was very proud of himself afterward. As he should have been, I suppose.
That’s part of what I like about doing things other people suggest. If I only agreed to activities I already liked, knew how to do, or felt confident doing, I’d probably end up doing the same things over and over. Sometimes you go because somebody else wants to try it. Maybe you discover you like it too. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re terrible at it and spend most of the time laughing. Either way, it’s a new experience.
The Memories I Apparently Gave Away
When I started thinking about mini-golf for Roxy and Kylo’s adventure, one of my nieces reminded me during one of my visits that I once took my nieces to a glow-in-the-dark mini-golf course when they were young. She remembers that it was hard to see and hard to keep score. I remember none of it. Not a little fuzzy. Not oh yes, now that you mention it. Nothing. Apparently my memory bank had already reached capacity and that particular file was deleted to make room for something else. But she remembers.
And maybe that’s one of the funny things about making memories together. We talk so much about creating moments we’ll remember forever, but that’s not really how it works. Some stay with us. Some fade. Some become stories another person has to tell us years later. The experience still happened. Someone still carried it with them. Laughter works a little like that too. I don’t think we usually set out to create it. People start talking. Somebody misses. Somebody does something unexpectedly well. Somebody gets a little too confident. The trash talk starts. Time moves faster.
Somewhere along the way, you’ve made a memory—even if years later someone else has to remind you that you were there.
Behind Roxy & Kylo’s Go-Kart + Mini-Golf Day
Roxy and Kylo’s adventure came after they had already gone back to school. Summer was winding down, but that didn’t mean the adventures had to stop immediately. I wanted them to have another chance to celebrate, have fun, and do something exciting together.
Go-karts and mini-golf made an easy combination because the park had both. One gave them speed and competition. The other gave them plenty of opportunities to miss, mess up, tease each other, and eventually lose track of the score altogether.
They’re also almost like fun-size versions of the real things. Mini-golf gives you a taste of golf without committing an afternoon to a golf course. Go-karts give you the steering, speed, passing and competition of racing without requiring a race car—or the courage to drive one. You don’t have to go all in just to try something. And you definitely don’t have to be good at something to have fun doing it.
By the end of Roxy and Kylo’s adventure, who was winning wasn’t really the point anymore. They were too busy laughing. That felt familiar.
What Stayed With Me
You don’t have to go all in to try something new. Sometimes a taste of it is enough to have fun, laugh, and find out whether you want more. And if you only do the things you already know you like, you may end up doing the same things over and over.
What About You?
What have you tried the “fun-size” version of—and did it make you want to try the real thing?
