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It is a sunny spring day in 2012.
I am outside with both of my older sisters.
I have just broken my arm on the swing set - chaos and shouting ensues.

It is a gray autumn day in 2022.
I am outside getting fresh air, alone and cold.
There is nobody home, the house is stale, everything has changed.

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My brother stared at his ripped drawing.

“Why did you do that?” he said, repelling my emanating rage.

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It is a warm summer day in 2022.

It is a Monday morning.

I am 17

I am 17 and for the first time, driving by myself

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It is spring 2010
It is any normal day in the spring of 2010
I am in my chaotic household that is home to five

It is summer 2021
It is late august of 2021
For the first time, our nest lost one of its members and I am now the leader of my siblings

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As the announcer drew his sentence to a close, I waited with bated breath for him to announce the winner of the writing competition. As the announcer began to open his mouth, time seemed to slow down. When he announced my name, the feeling was euphoric, it became a moment that I would never forget. That day became an integral starting point--a day an eager writer was born.

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It was a hot summer day in 2011

I am six years old

I am six years old having just learned how to ride a bike

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They were neighbors, really- a classmate, a big sister, a childhood playmate since 07- all gone down in eruptions of laughter down the block. I came to doubt the remembrance of early memories. I chose, consciously, to remain whisked away in my kindergarten years.

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It’s not easy to travel to an island to participate in a week-long service trip, nor is it easy to complete this task with 23 other high schoolers, all of whom you have never met. It’s not easy to commit to taking two-minute showers, nor is it easy to spend 16 hours a day constructing new cement roofs. And, it will never be easy to undo the vicious damage done to a hurricane-prone community. What is easy is this: It’s easy to commit yourself to altruism when you understand the innumerable blessings you have received and the sheer quantity of individuals in need.

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My mother and father ran towards me, and grabbed me by my wrist. “Don’t ever run away from us ever again. You could have slipped and gotten hurt!” they cried.

“I am sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“It is okay,” my mom said. My parents were angry at me, though they were relieved that I was alright.

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I don’t know why I still feel disappointed. I’m not sure if anything I’d done differently could have changed the way I feel. I’m not sure if anyone else still feels the same way I do or why I seem to care so much. What I do know is that I did everything I could. I put my all into everything I did and there's nothing I can change now.

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It was both a sunny and rainy day in 2018.

It was a hot September day in 2021.

I am 13 years old and very nervous.

I am 16 years old and very proud.

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It is a dark fall morning in 2019.

It is Halloween night, 2022.

I am 17 years old and an extremely busy student athlete.

I am 18 years old, and for the first time, accepted in college.

I am 18 years old and stepping foot onto the college campus where my new life awaits.

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He was six years old–he always walked with a hop in his step and a smile on his face like any regular six year old–but his knowledge of baseball was greater than anyone I had ever met before.

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It is 2005

I have begun to be alive

It is 2022

I now feel blue

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It is a hot and humid August day in 2007.

It is August 2023.

I am 18 years old and leaving my family.
I am 18 years and, for the first time, moving on from my hometown

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It is November, 1492
Columbus is sailing the Ocean Blue.
It is January, 1494
The Indians and the English have started a war.

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I looked up from the board and smiled at my opponent. I realized that I had made a critical error. She looked up and met my eyes. For the first time ever, my sister declared “Checkmate”.

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I don’t know what day I entered the pool for the first time, nor can I remember who taught me how to swim. I cannot remember what made me love swimming, nor how I got into swimming in the first place. What I can remember is this: I was 8 years old when I joined my first competitive team, a city girl who moved with her family just one year ago to Westfield, New Jersey.

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I didn’t know who the Irish president was. I didn’t even know if Ireland had a president or not. I didn’t know what currency it used, I didn’t know when it gained its independence, I didn’t know what the Irish national anthem was. I didn’t know about its tumultuous relationship with England. What I did know: Ireland was the country where my aunt and grandfather lived, where the skies were always a stunning grey and the grass a decadent green.

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It is a winter morning in 2008.

It is Christmas break, 2008.

I am three years old, with pigtails in my hair and blue pajamas on.

I am three years old, and am discovering what snow is.

(Alice Walker piece)

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We were sitting in a team meeting. Coach began rattling off names of those he wanted to continue to speak to, “Jeff, Andrew, Cole…”

My name was not called.

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It is a sunny morning in 2010.

It is my first day of my first ever summer break from school.

I am 5 years old and eager for new adventures.

I am an excited young girl on her way to summer camp.