My Simplified Life

The Beginning

I have many flashes of memories from when I was 2. But the earliest one is of a time when I ate my brother's older Bread Soup in the country of our parents.

Then there's a film like memory playing in my mind; my dad and siblings walking in tall grass, shortcutting through the park. My siblings and father went into the grass and walked, but I feared the small back flee-like things that grew on the weeds, so my dad had to come back and carry me. Later, in the car, my sister used a handful of those flee-things to taunt me.

2 years must've been an adventurous time for me, I can tell.

My earliest relevant memory, though, is of a time when we were about to leave my mother's country. After having the short vacation abroad, in my mother's Mother Land, my family and I got on the jumping boat to head back to south Florida, the place where I was born and raised. My mom was wearing a bright red shirt that was made of silk, and the designs on the shirt were roses colored blue and purple, which were connected by black, thorny vines. I'm pretty sure of the fact that I wasn't able to talk to well, otherwise I'd have been crying out to my mom as the boat threw me back and forth.

The boat was full, and there were elderly people on board, so they had the kids sit on the floor. Why they'd have a 2 year old sit on the floor of a jumping boat? I don't know. But the rough waves pushed the boat back and forth, and the boat threw my small body along with it. Rude.

Anyhow, I tried to get to my mother, crawling around in circles on the floor (since the adults were sitting in a circular format,) and gaining a little hope each time I found her red shirt. Then I'd scramble to my feet and try to jump at her, only to be thrown onto a stranger's lap whenever the boat jumped on and over a wave.

I recall trying this more than once, but the only stranger's face that I remember was that of an old man, smiling down at me.

My parents told me that the boat had been about to sink, so I guess it makes sense. You know, the boat jumping in real life, while on TV it's always a smooth cruise. Also the pastors and bands.

On what I've dubbed "the Jumping Boat" to this day, my siblings had left me on the floor and ran to look out of the window. They told me that they'd seen dolphins.

I didn't see any dolphins. I saw pastors praying, music playing, and there was a thick sense of confusion, only the confusion might've been coming from me. There were trumpets and trombones. People were preaching what must've been words of encouragement. The music was loud and it filled my ears.

I stumbled to my feet again and fought against the boat as it practically man-handled me. I searched for my mother in a frenzy. Everything else that happened on the boat is faded. I can't remember the exact tune of the songs they were playing, nor can I remember a single of the words the pastor had said. What I do remember though, is what I guess I was most concerned about, most panicked about; my mother.

That's all I remember. Whenever I reached her, I must've been calm, otherwise I'd remember it as vividly as I remember all these other things. But I don't remember what happened; not the getting off of the boat, the going home,  the conversations we had, or any of that.

The only faint memories I have of the vacation was a bit of the ride in my dad's car. I guess we were headed to the dock.

I taunted my cousins through the window of my dad's car from the inside, as we were driving to the dock, shouting words at them; something like "monkey head" or "peanut head". It was a fun time.

My siblings were smiling quietly probably. They were always adventurous; going out on the Jumping Boat and looking at the waves, laughing when the car hit a tree that was situated in front of a lake, even not being scared of those tiny black flee-things that sit on top of wheat-like plants! It was amazing! Their standard of normal was each other. My older sisters copying the eccentric nature of my brothers, my brother and direct older sister copying the daring nature of my oldest sister, and my oldest sister and brother copying the humorous side of my youngest sister.

My standard of normal, on the other hand, was myself.

I've always been a little different from the rest of them.