I thought I'd post a text I wrote for an English assignment, a brief flashback of my childhood memories. It's also an assignment which I quite enjoyed writing, simply for the fact of looking back at past experiences. Hopefully it will make good reading. Well, Enjoy!
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There I was, sitting on my bed, looking at a photograph album from when I was a child. It contained pictures of me in all the countries I had lived in until now, and I looked at each one, remembering my experiences in each country.
I picked up a photograph of myself wearing a Bugs Bunny pajama, playing with Lego. I recognized the corridor of my house in Italy in the background, and tried to remember the days in that house, but I was too small at that time. The only memories that came back to me were the time I locked my brother in the closet and wouldn't tell my mom where he was; the time my brother and I knocked an expensive dish over while my mom was preparing an important dinner. The rest was just a blur.
I picked up another photograph, of a 4 year-old me, petting a baby lion. Zimbabwe, I thought to myself, and the safari experiences came back to me in a flash. The time my brother and I kept on asking my mother if we could bring that baby elephant home and said that we would take care of it well if she let us. Or the time a monkey ran down from a tree and grabbed a lady's bag, and only gave it back, in various bits and pieces, hours later. The time we found a dead bat in our swimming pool, and the time there was a snake in the garden. Sure, some of the memories weren't pleasant, but they certainly made a good story to tell.
I flipped through some more photos, and this time I came across one where an 8 year-old me was crossing a busy New York avenue with my aunt. I remember that for an 8 year-old, New York certainly was an enormous place. I remember visiting the World Trade Center, going all the way to the roof and observing the breathtaking panorama of the Big Apple. It's scary to think that even if I wanted to, I would never be able to do that again. I watched as the slideshow of my memory reminded me of the times I visited the Empire State building, and there was a man dressed like King Kong inside; and when they wouldn't let us into the Statue of Liberty because we were too small. My clearest and fondest memory of my life in the U.S.A was Christmas time in New York City; the whole city was covered in snow, and in every street corner you could see a Santa Claus playing the trumpet or the guitar. Then, it was time to pick a Christmas present, and that moment, I will never, ever forget. Our parents took us to the Schwarz Toy Store, the biggest toy store in New York, with 30 stories worth of toys! They told us, “You must pick only one present”. Only one!? How on earth were we supposed to that? There were millions of toys to choose from! Another memory of the U.S.A rushed passed my mind, my heart operation. Although I don't remember anything from the operation itself, I saw the image of my mom taking me to the hospital at 5 in the morning on the 16th of December 1998, and waking up around 10 hours later, to find dozens of “Get Well” cards sent in by my classmates.
I picked up yet another photograph, and yet another collection of memories came with it. This time I was in Angola, at the beach. The uncountable times I went to the beach with my best friend and his Golden Retriever. We used to have races; I used to start off with a head-start of about a hundred metres, but the dog was still too fast for me, she caught up with me every time. I also remember the times we used to play football for hours after school on Fridays because we had nothing better to do at home.
I looked at another photograph, and smiling back at me was a more recent version of myself, compared to the other photos, smiling at me, with the Great Sphinx clearly visible in the background. The memories of 2 years in Egypt were still fresh in my mind. When we visited the Pyramids, and had horseback races amongst the dunes. When visiting the Sakkara pyramids, I pulled out a human lower jaw from beneath the sand and stood there, paralyzed, staring at it in pure shock and amazement. The memories of our Easter holidays in Sharm el Sheikh came back to me, where I saw a nurse shark pass right by me while snorkeling and refused to go back into the water for hours. I could almost feel the warmth of lying under the blazing sun on that beautiful beach all over again.
Yes, it feels good to remind myself of experiences in my life by looking at photographs. Whether they were good experiences or bad ones, I don't regret either, but look back at them fondly. However, I tell myself that there will be time for looking at photographs later, when I'm old and just want to use my time relaxing. Meanwhile, I hope I can live through many more experiences, so that I can take many, many more photographs...
