My Earliest Memory

I was born in a city called Cambridge. My family and I lived on a street called Langs Drive in a row of town houses, four connected in front, four connected in the back. There was a small yard, fenced in, and our house had three bedrooms. I shared a room with my older sister for a while until my parents converted a space in the basement into a room for her. My brothers shared a room with bunk beds. We had a black cat named Shadow, but no other pets. We lived in this house until 1997, when I was 7 years old. I have a lot of memories living there, but what is the earliest thing I remember?

I am probably about four or five years old and I am holding my mothers hand as we cross the street. She looks down at me and asks me if I know who Janice's daughter is. Me, being a young a naive girl who had a girl named Janice in my class suggests that the young girl couldbe named  Janice as well. My mother laughs and says, "no, it's Linsey."That  is all I can recal.. It's a short memory, and a simple one, but it's probably the clearest thing I can rremember from my childhood. 

This moment sparks many other memories involving Linsey, who was a year younger than me but quickly became my best friend. We played together often, at her house, at my house. We went to the park. We did gymnastics in her basement. We swam in a very small inflatable pool she had in her back yard. She had an older brother named AJ. Her mom drove a city bus. We freaked out over Aqua, Sprice Girls, N'SYNC, and the Backstreet Boys. We were young girls who had fun. Until I moved.

When I was 7 we moved out of Cambridge and into the country, just outside of the town I grew up in. We actually moved into Linsey's grandfathers house, and her moms old family home. I thoght that meant we'd see each other often, but after a few months of living away from each other we began to see each other less and less.

I can rememeber calling her house one day, I was probbaly about nine or ten years old, and her mother answered. I asked to speak to Linsey, and we talked for maybe five minutes. It was an awkward conversation. Things had changed between us, we weren't as close as we once were. We weren't frioends anymore. 

It's sad, when you look back on your life and see how much things changed so quickly when you were a kid. Time always seemed to move so slowly when you're little, but it doesn't, not really. Time goes by so quickly, and in the blink of an eye you change from an innocent five year old to a moody fifteen year old teenager.

At fifteen Linsey and I saw each other again. Her family brought out an RV and decided to camp at our farm for the summer. We had fires, slept in a tent, and hung out some nights. One day she even invited me to go swimming with her and her family. But again, after that summer, we fell away from each other. We still talkoccasionally  on Social media, but we aren't anywhere near as close as we were.

Time changes people. Memories fade. Life goes on. But it's improtant to hold on to the things that meant something to you. And that moment, when I was a young girl of four or five walking across the street to go and meet my first bestfriend meant a lot to me. And still does. And I think that's why it's a memory I hold on to, and why it's the first thing I can recall from my life.

Til next time,

Nessie <3