Underage

It has been weeks now since I've been trying to recall some of my childhood memories (as a writing challenge from a friend who's also a blogger). I have had quite a few precious recollections from my early years and there are a handful that would come to mind at any given time. However, choosing a favorite from the many memories that I had as a child seems to be a very challenging task.

I ended up gathering the memories that I delighted in as I thought about them.

Memory One: I remember celebrating one of my birthdays as a young boy. It must have been my sixth or seventh. During that celebration I recall making a wish that God would give me superpowers through the vegetables that I would eat. Then I blew the candles on my cake and wished for that fantasy to come true. But this isn't my most favorite childhood memory.

Memory Two: I remember purchasing my first cassette tape around the same time. "Color by Numbers" was the title of the Culture Club album that I bought. To the best of my recollection, I got that tape because I thought the song "Karma Chameleon" was really catchy, and it's music video quite trendy. But this isn't my most favorite childhood memory.

Memory Three: I readily recall several occurrences where my parents took my brother and me to the beach on Sunday afternoons. Those were times spent well with my little family of four. On one such instance, I remember, as I was playing with the incoming waves, that I got wiped out, rolled under one huge wave, and got spat out onto the shore. It was an intense experience for me at the time, but still not my most favorite childhood memory.

Memory Four: The very first day of school. I can still vividly feel the excitement I had with my first ever school bag, filled with my first ever school supplies, and getting ready for my first ever experience of the educational system. This memory also stuck with me for one tragic reason: a kid got run over by a car. To this day, I still don't know if that kid survived or not. However, this isn't the most favorite memory from the pre-teen days.

Memory Five: My father making homemade posters of our favorite characters. He had some drawing skills, which I remember he used quite well to make me a Wonder Woman poster. For my brother, it was a drawing of a local version of a cowboy that he drew. A very lovely and meaningful memory, yet still not my most favorite.

This one is.

The year was 1985. The family had just moved to a new village, which sat at the foot of a mountain with rather steep slopes. My brother and I had just made friends with the other kids in the neighborhood. Some of these kids suggested that we climb that mountain with them. I don't remember much of the peripheral details of how we got up that mountain or if we got permission to go at all, but I do recall the sights, the sensations, and the feeling of being on top of that neighborhood hill.

I don't know if it was due to the newness of this experience (as it was my first time to ever climb a mountain) or the exhilaration of seeing a "different perspective" of life, but this memory of being high up above everything else gave me more than just a favorite event to recall; it made me feel that there was more to life than just living the ordinary.

At the top of that mountain, I could see miles away in every direction. I could also see a miniature version of the village we just moved into. That vantage point offered me unhindered views of the clear, blue afternoon sky, and enabled me to breathe in the cool, fresh mountain air. I also loved how the world seemed so silent, so serene from where I stood.

Thinking about it now, I believe the reason why I love this memory from my underage years is because it was a glimpse into who I would eventually become: a person who would love nature -- sea, sky, and mountains high; a person who would find solace and peace in the quiet reassurances that the earth offered; a person who would appreciate the simple joys of life while also yearning for greater things and distant places.

To put it succinctly (and to borrow from the title of my now-defunct Multiply account)

this childhood memory is my favorite because it captures the essence of my personality and my character: Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground!