I remember

taking a walk throught the neighborhood with my mom and asking her what "S-T-O-P" spelled.

seeing a homeless person for the first time.

crying during Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" video.

being elated that Santa Claus had come, not realizing that I had actually caught my parents redhanded.

not wanting to get on the school bus, but being happy once I was shown the Cheetos and M&Ms in my lunch box.

my Minnie Mouse backpack.

not liking Grouchy Smurf and getting offended if I were accused of being like him.

loving Piglet.

tennis shoes with no shoelaces but two velcro straps across the front.

watching an old Italian woman at the beach cut a sea urchin in half and slurp out the insides.

Parmalat milk.

feeding raw hotdogs to a stray neighborhood dog.

throwing rose petals on a float of a patron saint and a Virgin.

fighting a boy over a swing.

having a crush on the pizza delivery boy.

swishing my mouth out with fluoride once a week at school because there was no fluoride in the water.

jumping off the high dive into the deep end.

wishing I could paint "Waterlilies" by Monet.

playing the flute in Beginning Band and walking home with a boy who played the sax.

feeling more out of place in the United States than in a foreign country.

punching in a lunch number at the cafeteria register.

the ecstatic catharsis of speaking in tongues for the first time.

being a candy striper over the summer.

the dread of my first kiss.

the smell of Bath and Body Works Pearberry body spray.

the complete darkness, booming, dramatic drum beat and piercing, heartwrenching bagpipe which began the version of the play Macbeth that I saw in high school.

a boy who wrote "We Did It!" on his torso in body paint and lifting his robe to show the audience after he got his diploma.

sorrowfully crying after my parents dropped me and my belongings off in a dorm room.

the feeling of getting a new life every semester.

feeling the impact of my car hitting a telephone pole and gritting my teeth against crushed glass.

watching alternating stretches of graffitied urban sprawl and countryside speed by a train window.

observing a butterfly with a torn wing flutter on the curb.