Vanessa Espin

I Remember

I remember when the principle pulled my ear with his two long nails for being late. I was six; he should have pulled my parents ears.

I remember when I had like twenty pairs of the five-dollar Chinese fishnet sandals with beads.

I remember when watching sponge bob was my after school activity.

I remember my first kiss. We were playing spin the bottle in a classroom and it was not with the person I expected. The guy’s braces made it worse.

I remember when I got my first pet, Papo, a very small ball of hair that destroyed my mom’s shoes but made those sad days not so bad at all.

I remember my little sister and I would play with Barbie’s. I would dress them and we would come up with some crazy story about twenty Barbie’s fighting over that one ken. I wonder why she only had one ken. Lucky guy.

I remember I was sitting next to my crush when I had my first drink…. I don’t remember the rest.

I remember being ten when I was learning English in a school where no one spoke Spanish. One of the first assignments was to bring something that meant a lot to me, something important. What I understood was that I had to bring something for the poor kids. I brought old cloths and an old microwave, and ended it up saying, “I like to cook and wash cloths”. The teacher had this face like wondering is this all they teach this kid at home.

I remember mom giving me a teddy bear on every birthday.

I remember coloring the cartoons on the newspapers while drinking coffee.