- Climbing out of my crib.
- The day my grandfather, my younger sister, and I ventured far into the rain forest to find the hidden totem poles and ate wild berries. How we then emerged in the rain on the edge of the sea and I found a silver spoon and a marble, and my grandfather told us grand stories about pirates. The smell of the ramshackle fish shop where we ordered salmon. The long walk on the highway to the old town with the empty jail and the sweet shop that smelled like magic. Walking back home in the howling thunderstorm. Flashlights bobbing as we ran. The fish in the paper bag. I have never felt so alive.
- Being forced to fish in Florida, and reeling in that huge fish with the sharp teeth that made our captor's hands bleed.
- The fairy houses my friends and I built into the long hedge growing on the fence at my elementary school.
- My great-grandmother's beautiful, long fingers teaching me how to braid my hair.
- Sitting on my friend Andrea's roof with mugs of steaming peppermint tea mixed with honey, wrapped in a blanket, looking at the moon.
- The day I got the highest mark on my essay on "My Favorite Place" and I realized I wanted to write for a living.
- Maricela laughing good-naturedly as I tried again and again to ask her for scissors in Spanish. The day when she finally handed me the scissors.
- Dancing in the river on the curb of my street with my sister in the pounding rain. My neighbor yelled at us from her doorway to stop, saying we would get pneumonia. I told her that I didn't care.
- The time my 6th grade class had that assignment to write one nice thing about each person in class. She compiled them all in lists for us. Almost everyone wrote that they liked how I watched, and understood. I didn't think anyone noticed me.
oct 13 2012 ∞
oct 13 2012 +
oct 13 2012 +