Memory is Imagination

Writing Exercise from 9/10/2009

Begin with the phrase "I remember" and start writing. It doesn't matter if you stick with one memory or list several. You can retrieve memories from as far back as childhood (or past lives!) to as recently as yesterday. If you get stuck just keep repeating the phrase "I remember," in writing, until something else forms in your consciousness. Don't even be concerned with the authenticity of the memory. Just record whatever comes to you. Don't stop until you have filled two pages.

I remember the day I met my first boyfriend- the one I don't usually count. I went to a baseball game with my best friend. It was the Diamonds-- They were after the Silver Sox and before the Chukars and before the Silver Sox returned. I don't recall the details of how we wound up going to that game, but I do remember that is was with people from her church and he was one of them. Tall, brown eyes, curly hair.
I remember the day I met my second boyfriend. He was actually my friend's boyfriend at the time. I know that your friends exes are supposed to be off limits, but she's the one who set up up, so it seemed like it would be okay. The day we met, my friend had invited me to go see a movie with her and her boyfriend (who would later be my boyfriend) . We saw Mr. Bean, and afterward we went back to his house and his best friend played Fur Elise on the keyboard.
I remember the day I met my third boyfriend (and there hasn't been one since-- I learned not to settle for less than I deserve). It was freshman year of high school and a friend from my English class was friends with him. We'd seen each other every day because his locker was right by mine, but we hadn't been introduced. After the day we met, we would spend years bickering and bantering as friends before he became my third boyfriend. He definitely was a much better friend than he was a boyfriend, but I'd always know that would be the case and had settled anyway. Never again.
I remember my first kiss, well before all three of the boyfriends. It was the friend from my freshman English class the summer after freshman year-- I was fourteen. He wanted to be my first boyfriend, though I didn't know it at the time. He'd invited me over to the apartment where he lived with his mom along with some other friends for a pool party. The other friends he's invited were a couple. That night, we were all in the pool after dark and his other friends were in the corner of the pool making out. We were on the other side of the pool talking and he pointed up at the sky pointing out Orion. When I looked up, he kissed me. But I didn't kiss back. I was fourteen. I wasn't ready. And I'd thought we were just friends. I told him that I only thought of him as a friend, and he accepted it, though throughout high school he kept trying and I never was willing to give him a chance. If I have any regrets, that is it-- who knows what my skewed high school perception may have lost me.
I remember the day I met my first love, not realizing at the time what he would become to me or the drama that my life would become because of it. I had gone with a couple of friends to the Pi Phi Sorority house to play board games in the basement after the Thursday night meeting of Intervarsity. My friend and I had decided to stay on when the girl we'd ridden with decided to go home. We were going to walk back to the dorms-- After all, it wasn't very far at all. When the game night ended and the group dispersed, my friend and I made our way to the door, but we were followed by a friendly giant-- an extremely tall guy who hadn't said much all night. He announced that he couldn't let us walk back to the dorms alone and he joined us on our trek up Sierra Street. On the way, we passed two girls sitting outside on their front steps having a cigarette. One of the girls was wearing bunny slippers. Our tall friendly escort was quite amused by the slippers and asked the girl if he could try them on. I can't even remember if she let him-- just that he asked.
I remember all of these things and the lessons that I learned from each of these experiences have helped to make me into the woman I am today.