I Cherish

Items I Cherish Just for the Memories they Evoke

Word count: 460

1. Froggy- Froggy is  the stuffed frog my mother gave to me on my fourth birthday. Here I am, having turned fourteen several months ago, still sleeping with him every night. Childish, I know, but I just can't bring myself to get rid of him. There's really nothing all that special about him that anyone else would be able to see, he's just a little toy that anyone else would've gotten rid of long before now. But he's been with me for so long, through all the good and the bad times. He's a part of my childhood that I'm not willing to give up, and now it's the only thing I really have to remember my mother by.

2. Crystal- Crystal is a porcelin doll I won on Fair Day my first year of summer camp. She's dressed in classic 50's style- turtle neck with a wool sweater overtop, black belt, pink poodle skirt with slip and bloomers under it, and knee-high socks and leather shoes.Her hair is curly blonde, put up with pink scrunchie and bangs cut straight across her forhead. I named her for her crystal blue eyes, being only seven years old. She now stands on my dresser, and I smile when I think of that day and the many other like it the following years. I'm so fond of these memories and the camp in general, probably because like me,every other kid in that camp was a foster kid.

3. A small bracelet- It has a blue band, and my name written in silver square beads. It's funny, because my name isn't even spelled right; it's spelled Jenna (instead of Jennah) with the ''a'' as an upside-down ''v'' It was given to me sometime around third grade, by my then best friend Chloe. Even though we've grown apart, I still smile at the good times we've had and sometimes cry I miss her so much.

4. Corey's candle- When I was ten years old, a good friend of mine died from diabetes. He was only eleven. It was the summer after fifth grade, even more heart-breaking when you think of how much he was looking forward to be in sixth. On the one-year anniversary of his death, his mother held a candle light vigil in his memory. I still have the candle.

5. A stuffed eagle- From my sith grade graduation. We were the Arbor Eagles, therefore the graduating class got stuffed eagles. I went to Arbor from first to sixth grade, and had so many good and bad times there. Mine was the last graduating class of Arbor Elementary- it was torn down the following year. I cried. Now when I pass where it used to be, I'm sad to see only a vacant lot.