I am from waking up at 6 a.m. looking like a fossilized thing from the swamp. I'm from tripping over air in the morning to finding my shoes 2 minutes before the bus comes.

I am from scorching summers that make layers seem like a death sentence

and freezing winters with crispy grass and painful ears,

my fingers like icicles ready to fall off while walking to the bus stop.

 

I’m from trick or treating with my friends on Halloween                         

in an inflatable Bavarian man costume stuffed with pillows to make it realistic.

I’m from getting braces in second grade, and then getting them again in 7th grade

because my teeth were going in opposite directions

like they were going through a teenage breakup.

 

I’m from having the same dark brown hair as my family

but different eyes and dominant hands.

I’m from my uncle who I can talk to for hours about any kind of music without getting bored.

I’m from whatever we are eating for dinner that day,

because I never actually know.

 

I’m from my brother, and how we always find a way to accidentally injure or scare each other.

How we make potions out of random things we find in the kitchen such as an orange, water, some spices, sauces and condiments, and whatever other horrendous things we find.

I’m from, “If you fall down hard enough your head will explode,” and,

“if you run fast enough you’ll fly to Mars,”

all of which he told me.

I’m from going fishing with my brother, and then catching something so strong it pulled 5 year old me into the water.

 

I’m from getting attacked by hornets the first time,

the second time,

and the third time. (I have no idea how this happened, either.)

I’m from getting lost in the woods with my neighbor and finding our way to a random road.

I’m from riding my bike as fast as I can down the street, and then

crashing into a curb and doing a triple front flip like Simon Biles and landing on the pavement right next to the soft grass.

 

I’m from a house that’s always loud due to the fact that it groans and cracks like knuckles, and because we are always playing the many musical instruments that exist there.

I’m from sneaking downstairs and making myself a quesadilla in the microwave

at 3:21 a.m.

And trying to do a backflip in the living room but landing in the weirdest way possible,

looking like I just fell off of the roof…which has happened on multiple occasions.

I’m from digging a hole in the woods behind my house and placing a broken wheelbarrow in it to make a fire pit.

 

I’m from my great-grandfather, who told me about surviving an EF4 tornado.

And the immigration of my grandfather on my dad’s side and my great-great grandfather on my  Mom's side.

I’m from having my great-grandfather’s military medals, U.S. Air Force badge, and POW MIA badge framed all together in the most random room in my house, along with some very old images of my grandfather in India.

 

I am from my neighbor’s 8 or 9-foot sunflowers that seem to grow taller everyday.

And the black and yellow black-eyed susans that represent Maryland, their dark center sticking out like a stuck camera lens.

I’m from starting random projects like making a horror movie with my friends, working on it for hours every day, and then moving to the next idea.

 

I’m from taking the recycling up my never-ending driveway, only to look up and see a bright smear of stars like an aurora because it wasn’t cloudy that day. I’m from trying something absurd, like climbing an unstable tree and falling hard on the ground.

 

And then seeing if I can climb up that tree again.