The beginning of my life was filled with more bad memories than good. The pleasant memories are far and few and they are accompanied by awful circumstances. It was not until I became an adult that my life was truly filled with happiness. I spent most of my childhood in survival mode. Always checking for danger, making sure that my brother was ok, or my mom didn’t fall off the deep end. 

Making a story based on my life would be a sad story with a good outcome, at least so far it’s been good. I am not ashamed of my story but I do not want it to define me. I think that my past gave me courage to do what is right, to keep my head up when times are hard and, to look out for the people that I love. My past definitely shaped me into the person I am right now and not to brag, but I think I am pretty cool. 

Since I do not want this to be a tragic story I will think back to my happiest memories. The first one that comes to mind is me being pushed in a hammock. A beautiful steady hammock that was strung between two strong trees in front of my great grandmothers house. We called her Nana. My memories of Nana are mostly good. She would sit in her big recliner chair and have us kids rub her feet like it was some sort of game and we all willing did it. She would put on a movie – kid friendly of course and my cousins and I would sit there the whole time just rubbing away. Nana also had a computer room and I didn’t have one of those at my house. So every time we got there I would sprint to the computer and play games from Disney Channel. Like Zack & Cody or LIlo and Stitch. Back then, being on a computer was only entertaining for so long and once the novelty ran out I was itching to run around the yard or swing in the hammock. One of my favorite “tricks” to do would be to wrap myself up, flip over and poke my head out the bottom. Nana’s house was a cherished place. That’s when all of the family was together and happy. My dad and mom were happy together, all of the cousins got along and we were always with each other. 

The hammock and the trees are a safe memory.