where i'm from

i am from cornfields and farmhouses,

from rolling hills and quiet maple trees.

i am from the sheets draped over clotheslines,

flapping away in the wind.

i am from the mud puddles that flooded gravel driveways,

from the winter storms that iced them over.

i am from the red sheds,

from the garden that never really worked out.

i am from the delicious banana bread in the windowsill,

from the many dinners at Nana’s house.

i am from the kringla and lefse,

from White Christmas and Sound of Music.

i am from the ham and cheese cut into squares,

and the traumatizing pb and j story that we never dare speak of.

i am from sunday mass,

from bitter coffee and sweet donuts afterwards.

i am from the old and new testaments,

from the many years of schooling in the name of the Lord.

i am from the tons of doctors,

from glasses and blood draws.

i am from the trips to reunions,

from car rides and slip ‘n slides.

i am from school life,

from the many faces who have come and gone,

when i question who i am and why i can’t always be me.

i am from the conversations with the ‘rents,

from the “be you and if they don’t understand, then

they aren’t worth it.”

i am from the lost,

from the weepings that followed.

i am from the sorrow, from the happiness.

from the newfound and the forgotten.

i sit back and stare at the blanket of memories my life has knitted for me,

each strand depicting a face, thought, moment, place.

i run my fingers over the soft spots, where a smile appears,

yet some patches feel rough and cold, forcing goosebumps to appear on my freckled skin.

i wrap my heart and soul up inside and remind myself

that these are the times that have woven my unique sense of self.

and that’s when i realize,

that i have so many more amazing moments ahead of me.

-cassie elliott