I Remember....

This is a freewrite assignment we had in class in which you begin each sentence with the phrase "I remember". :)

I remember that when I was in elementary school my mother would always pack me a salami sandwich for lunch and by the end of the school year my lunch box smelled so strongly of salami that to this day just looking at salami makes me gag.

I remember the day I watched the documentary Earthlings, and the fear in the poor factory farm animals' eyes. This documentary made me decide to go vegan. I was completely vegan for about 8 months before I decided to switch to a mostly vegan diet but occasionally eat vegetarian.

I remember trying faux meat for the first time and liking it, but thinking the texture was kind of odd.

I remember the day I met my girlfriend for the first time and how nervous we both were.

I remember the day we brought home our new cat Mowgli. He was a rescue that we adopted from Planned Pethood.

I remember the first time I planted sunflowers.

I remember the day my grandmother died and that terrible feeling in my gut while sitting at home before we got to the hospital, then again upon arriving when we realized we arrived too late to say goodbye to her.

I remember my dad being in and out of the hospital after I graduated highschool and all throughout my first two semesters of college. I remember the smell of the hospital room, that sick feeling in my gut, and the way his hands swelled up like balloons as he lay with them tied to the hospital bed in a week long coma.

I remember my mom and stepdad's wedding.

I remember how he hid her engagement ring in a bucket of candy when he proposed to her on halloween night.

I remember the day my little sister was born, and the first time I held her.

I remember the first time I got into a car accident, we slid on black ice on the expressway. I remember thinking I was going to die and trying desperately to control the car while shouting "I love you" over and over again to my girlfriend who sat in the passenger seat beside me as we veered into oncoming traffic and off the road into a ditch on a hill.

I remember the way the police officer looked when she saw the car sitting alongside the busy expressway lightly dusted with snow and the way she took off sprinting towards us.

I remember coming out to my grandmother.

I remember my dog Max and the day that he was put to sleep.

I remember the day I brought home my cat Ariel for the first time, and how innocent and inquisitive she was.

I remember going to my brother's highschool graduation.

I remember the first time I tried making vegan banana pudding and succeeding. Everybody loved it, and oddly enough it tasted just like my grandma's.

I remember falling time and time again and getting back up until I had finally mastered tricks on my pogo stick.

I remember jumping up and down on it endlessly over the summer and counting well into the thousands before stopping to take a break.

I remember black eyed susans in the summer.

I remember proposing to my girlfriend and how excited we both were to tell everybody.

I remember being bullied almost everyday in third grade for liking the band Hanson, and wearing a brown t-shirt sporting their name.

I remember dunking oreos in milk and eating them rows at a time.

I remember drunken nights with friends playing Rock Band on the X-box.

I remember catching fireflies in the summer with my brother and cousins.

I remember walking through Grandma's backyard to feed bread to ducks at the pond.

I remember playing in the big dirt hole in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard that used to be a pool and throwing a rock. I still remember the blood as it poured from my younger brother's head and all over his brand new white tennis shoes as he failed to duck.

I remember baking him cookies later because I felt so guilty for hurting him.

I remember the first time I tried a vegan cupcake.

I remember dressing up and going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Croswell.

I remember the way the viola strings felt under my callused fingers and counting the strokes as I rosined my bow to play.

I remember getting goosebumps when we played Phantom of the Opera at our All City Orchestra Concert my senior year and the chills that shot down my spine as those first notes echoed loudly throughout the gym.

I remember when the building burnt down at work/where I live.

I remember watching birds with Grandma on her front porch and drinking hot tea from a mug.

I remember listening to Grandma tell her stories as we shucked corn and broke beans from the garden.

I remember the excitement I felt the first time a pepper grew on my pepper plant.

I remember tall sunflowers and sidewalk chalk drawings on the patio.

I remember the first time I tried a nectarine. It was so juicy and ripe.

I remember the first time I got an A in math class.

I remember staying up all night talking and then rushing to work in the morning in shoes 3 sizes too big because I hadn't packed mine to stay the night.

I remember locking myself out of the car with the keys still in the ignition and the car still running.

I remember the angry look on my father's face when he saw the flattened tire on his truck.

I remember sleeping in and the taste of vegan buttermilk pancakes.

I remember the sound of the coffee maker in the morning and the smell of fresh brewed coffee filling the air.

I remember the cat zipping from room to room in a frenzy.

I remember the dog coughing because he drinks his water too fast.

I remember inch worms crawling all over Josh when he climbed the pine tree in the trailer park, and how he had to run home and have his mom pick them all off of him.

I remember playing football with the guys in the trailer park and it taking 5 of them to tackle me to retrieve the ball.

I remember cut brake pads on my bicycle and how it never quite rode right again even after Grandpa fixed it.

I remember the day we had to get rid of our dog Sadie because she bit the neighbor.

I remember Bob, and now I wonder what ever happened to him. (A Mr. T head piggy bank that I named Bob and carried around as a child).

I remember going to the Zoo as a child and being traumatized by the snake suffocating the mouse.

I remember the wood work jumping with fleas.

I remember when Caitlen thought she dropped her rent money and running all over campus as we frantically tried to find it.

I remember every homophobic encounter.

I remember my first Christmas with Caitlen.