Remember to Remember

I remember. I remember so much from 1982 it hurts. 
I remember thinking I was in love. 
I remember sneaking Judy Blume's Forever to and from school every day and reading about teenage sex. 
I remember two classmates fighting in our classroom. 
I remember my first dance, my first kiss in a basement dancing to Journey. 
I remember being alone with a boy. I remember when he told everyone about it. 
I remember riding on the back of my 'boyfriend's' brother's motorcycle. I was 12 and I was riding on the back of a motorcycle with a teenager. 
I remember mean girl drama. I remember laughing. I remember crying. I remember healing.
I remember getting straight A's.
I remember sleep overs and seances and talking on the phone. 
I remember riding my bike all over River Grove, across busy streets, through the woods and over rail road tracks. 
I remember loving my parents and loving/hating my little brother. 
I remember feeling safe in my bed at night. 
I remember talking to God while listening to Joan Jett on the radio. 
I don't remember if I told my mother about any of these memories.


I remember all this, and shake my head back to the present moment, back to 2012, back to my 12 year old daughter. The challenge, now, is to remember all I remember, and let her live her life, have her own experiences, good and bad, so she can learn and grow from each success, failure and choice. I can only hope she'll share some of her 'remembers' with me.