I am from…

I am from Legos, Match-box cars, and toy airplanes I played with every day

I am from the forts made from a blanket and chairs

I am from all of the monkey bars, jungle jims, forts, and towers that I climbed or played on

I am from the neighbors trees

The tall oak that I climbed, the short maple that was our end-zone

And the cherry and mulberry trees we ate at daily

I am from the games we played

Tag, football, baseball, and any other sport you can think of during the day

Ghost in the Graveyard or Bloody Murder at night

I am from the bikes, rollerblades, and my own two feet

Which I raced with and used to get anywhere I wanted to go

I am from the swings I rode

The ones at my babysitters, where we tried to go around the pole

Dahgmar’s tree swing where you could get at least 30 feet in the air

I am from the candy I ate

The ring pops that were a treat from my babysitter just because I was older

The tootsie rolls that the Ailt’s would bring home

The Fire Balls that were so hot that you could hardly eat them, yet they somehow tasted so good

I am from all of the strange things that we built

The tree house that only lasted about a week until it broke

The snow caves that stretched from one end of the yard to the other

The house of leaves we made in the weeping willow in the fall

And most of all the haunted house in the basement every year during Halloween

I am from my grandpa and grandma’s house

Everything from picking mushrooms, hiking, and shooting BB guns

Playing games like Aggravation, Uno, and Sequence

Going on Easter egg hunts with my cousins and sitting on Santa’s lap during Christmas

I am from the roller-skating rink

Where I spent most birthdays and any weekend that I could

I am from the open field next to the church and across the street from my house

The adventurous games we played there, the colorful kites we flew there, and the time we spent playing with our dog, Buster

I am from the fires we built

The campfires out at the lake

The small fires just big enough to roast marshmallows in the Ailt’s garden

The fires on the lawn from fireworks on the fourth of July

I am from all of the people who loved and cared for me and that I love and care for.

These are all of the things I am from.