I don’t have the best memory. Most of my memories from childhood are quite vague and fragmented. But what I do remember vividly was my older cousin constantly pinching my skin between her fingernails when she wanted me to do something that I did not want to. Whether it was getting her food, water or asking my mom to bring home chocolate-not for me, but for her- the indents of her fingernails would remain on my skin for hours. Although I have forgotten about this until this post, I still want an apology to know that she regrets what she has done. I love my cousin but I’ll love her even more if she apologizes for being awful to me when we were younger.

If I could revive a former version of myself, it would be my comedian phase. When I was around 8, I would try to come up with as many jokes as possible and put on a show for my family after dinner. I don’t remember being all that funny, but I do remember that I was able to liven up the mood at home.

I’ve always heard from my mother that her father-in-law, my grandfather, was a highly respected individual in our community. Since everyone in the community treated each other like a family member, my grandfather would always go out of his way to help them in any way possible. The only remaining memories I have of my grandfather are in the family album full of photos with him holding me in his arms. I want to investigate the person he was to gain inspiration to better myself for the sake of others.

A local event I remember was a Spanish parade on my neighborhood that lasted for days. People were dressed in stunning attire, played melodious songs on their instruments and danced with never-ending joy. I did not join them, but I admired them from my window the entire time they were out. In order to find out more about this event, the next time it happens I can talk to one of the members to see if they can share the reason behind the parade.

A friend of mine from high school named Mahnoor was an incredibly talented artist. When we took ceramics together, I remember the joyous expression she had on her face through every minute of the class. Expectedly, she excelled at every project we were assigned with her amazing talent and hard work. But there was one project she had a very hard time with. It was creating a pinch pot. She attempted to make a pinch pot three times and each time something wrong happened. Mahnoor never gave up on her work. I watched her as everyone else moved onto the next project and she continued to work on another pinch pot. Once she was finally pleased with her work, I could see all her efforts physically in that beautifully made pinch pot. If I had the chance to ask her about the pinch pot, I would ask her how she felt throughout this long and strenuous time.

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.