there are places i remember.

there are places i remember... places in time. places in my mind. places i've gone. places i've imagined. places with her or him or them. places i hold onto. places i try and forget. there are places i remember... places that make up who i've been, who i am, and who i have yet to become.

i remember being young and pretending to be cinderella. when barbies could occupy an entire day. playing boys chase girls. having water fights. riding bikes around the neighborhood until dark. i remember when the best part of summer was camping (devoid of alcohol or the opposite sex)... even if that meant in setting up a tent in the backyard with your best girlfriend. there are places i remember... full of innocence and dreams and imagination, a time when i knew nothing but believed everything. i never went far but somehow i still felt like i could conquer the world.

i remember things. a song plays on the radio and it triggers something inside of me... sometimes a place i can't even find again, but somehow, i know it's there. it's playing through my speakers and in my heart. and then that emotional place comes, where you feel like you're missing something, but at the same time feel as if you've rediscovered an old friend. love and loss. friendship and change. there are places i remember... full of people i will never forget. people that are unaware of how much they've changed my life. i will hold on to a piece for forever. pieces of my favorite places - stashed in my mind. written on my heart. speaking now as, me. there are places i remember... places where someone became a part of me. i am an individual, but i am not alone.

i remember conversations. exact phrases. entire sentences. i remember words because of how they made me feel, how they still make me feel. i replay them in my head... hoping not to lose them. perhaps, hoping to learn something new. to find something deeper behind the surface. to get to know someone. to dive in without caring to come up for air. there are places i remember... where we sat as we spoke. car rides. and bike rides. campfire visits and late night chats on the couch. talking on the phone until your ear burns. chatting online till the wee hours of the morning... just to connect. just to know someone is there, that someone wants to listen. there are places i remember... and words that go along with them. sad or joyful. hurtful or encouraging. humorous or somber.

i remember thinking that college would never come. i remember thinking that college would never end. the 'real world' was simply an illusion - full of parents and old people, a place that would take forever to reach. there are places i remember... the feeling of uncertainty and uneasiness at the thought of growing up. i remember it, because it is now. the place of decision and responsibility. the place i would like to post-pone. the place i am going has yet to make itself known. and i stand on the brink of opportunity i find myself wishing for a place of the past. when time stretched ahead like a never-ending ocean, with me, slowly swimming towards a shore that would never come. there are places i remember... i would drown myself in the past, only for another moment to see clearly the place that i belong. i'm holding on. i'm letting go. i'm hesitant, yet ready to fly.

there are places i remember... and there are places i have yet to know.