A Toast

Today, while cleaning out my accordion file, I found some papers from college. I don't recall the assignment Dr. Cech gave us in that Fall 2006 section 5611 of LIT 4930: Hermes to H. Potter (or what, exactly, was going on with my capitalization here), but this is what I wrote:

A Toast

To Kool-Aid and Crayons and Color by Number

Stuffed Animals, Sleepovers, Best Friends Forever

To Coffee can stilts and a witches' stew

So little time and so much to do

To hand drawn cartoons like The Little Mermaid

Party dresses and costumes that Gram made

To Lightning Bugs in Mason Jars

Rugrats and Super Mario Brothers

To Hot Dogs and Macaroni & Cheese

To Overalls and matching tees

A Pink Dress, White Polka Dots

To A Dad called Pop who called me Dot

To Cheering lifts and camping trips

Singing with the band in my cowgirl outfit

Jump-rope and jumping on the trampoline

To Saltine crackers on Grandpa's swing

To Right to Read week, the Merry-Go-Round

Pig Math, clapping games on the playground

To The Pledge of Allegiance, The Act of Contrition

To Drug Abuse Resistance Education

To the time before--

. . . I knew being teacher's pet might be a bad thing

. . . I knew what cancer meant

. . . I cared what boys were thinking

. . . boyfriends happened

. . . I was expected to have a boyfriend

. . . I was supposed to wear make-up

. . . the pressure to be thin

. . . political correctness

. . . cynicism and air quotes and double entendres and innuendo

. . . we learned to curse, to drink, to party, to hate

. . . imagination made me an escapist

. . . reality tainted my imagination

To the days when--

. . . dirt was my only enemy

. . . my little brother was still little

. . . people thought we were twins

. . . my cousins were more like my sisters

. . . my brother and I could lie across the backseat side by side

. . . sharing was just what we did

. . . we went to church as a family

. . . I dreamed of being Mary in the fourth grade Nativity play

. . . I had time to read for fun

. . . the shows on Nick at Nite were what my parents had watched as kids

. . . no one had a cell phone and we only had computers at school

. . . I felt comfortable in a bathing suit

. . . I still wore shorts

. . . I thought I could be anything

. . . the grass was green enough at home

To smiling

To laughing

To enjoying the little things

To seeing the bright side

To enjoying swimming pools--not dreading them

To not holding my nose

To swimming with my eyes wide open

To plunging in sometimes without testing the water first

To believing in things that aren't real because they might someday be