One time this happened...

I used to get anxious every time my mom dropped me off for violin lessons at 3 PM on Tuesdays, but for some reason, that particular afternoon sticks out in my memory. We lived on 14th Street, near the park where a guy sold fresh-cut daisies.

My grandma's knitting needles kept slipping, clicking against the wobbly wooden armchair as she tried to explain my first time riding a bike without training wheels. Her eyebrows were an unruly patch over her wrinkled forehead, making her expression look suspicious – like, I was suddenly a fugitive on the lam.

The smell of fresh-cut grass clung to my fingers when I picked her up from the party. It wasn't until that night that she told me what it meant, how it reminded her of her childhood in Wisconsin, summer barbecues and siblings tumbling out of trees.

Mornings spent shoveling snow from my grandma's driveway began after my mom fell ill – my grandma, too stubborn to admit she needed help, made these early winter duties mine. The biting air felt less sharp as I huffed against the wind, eyes on the task ahead, trying to find symmetry in uneven flakes.

The day you're supposed to lose your virginity never quite looks the way you expect. In my case, it happens on a Tuesday afternoon while trying out a trampoline behind a friend's house, with his annoying little sister shrieking about 'getting tangled up like laundry' in my ear.

My hands were a nervous sieve, letting go of my mom's arm to grasp a soggy cafeteria tray in a failed attempt at independence. I stared blankly at the slop in front of me - mystery meat and a suspiciously grey vegetable - as I tried to mimic the grown-ups' conversation around me.