Jessica Copi
Integrative Seminar 1: Shift
Monday 9AM-11:40AM
September 19th 2016
Ten and Under
Some memories come easily, others are hazier. The following thirteen memories are a combination of both: some which came to mind right away, and some which took more effort to recall. I spoke at length with a friend about memories from long ago, and spent that time trading stories back and forth until some of the deeply buried ones resurfaced. They were also triggered by thinking about certain songs, foods, or places in San Francisco.
Dent
Location: Forehead, over the left eye
Cause: In my enthusiastic arrival at Day Street Park, I open the iron gate to the playground, it swings and hits me smack dab in the face.
Diagnosis: Cut on forehead, blood, no stitches needed.
Treatment: Rainbow bandage and probably something sweet.
Follow-up: Traumatized by iron gates. Dent and scar on my forehead persist.
Ear
Location: Ear
Cause: Pediatrician check up, four years old, routine ear-prod, done forcefully.
Diagnosis: Ear, tear ducts, and lungs intact, tested through tantrum.
Treatment: Find new pediatrician.
Follow-up: Retell this story to anyone who mentions pediatricians and Dr. Schwanke specifically. Fear doctors who want to stick things in my ear.
Balloons
It’s my birthday. I think I’m turning four. Family and friends are around. There’s a piece of carpet stapled between the living room and my room. Maybe it’s butcher paper and not carpet. My dad rips whatever material it is, and a wall of balloons come tumbling down. They are everywhere!
Tomato Juice
Location: Tongue
Cause: Trying a classmate’s V8 in preschool.
Diagnosis: Disgust!
Treatment: Spit into trash can. Never drink V8 again.
Follow-up: Continue hating vegetable/tomato juice until Bloody Mary’s are discovered.
Grape Soda
Preschool lunch packed by my parents. Grape soda, made from grape juice and seltzer, a staple in my house growing up, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Feeling sick during naptime. Being carried by a teacher down the hall to vomit in the bathroom. I didn’t make it.
Cream Cheese
I am four, maybe five years old. A guest, maybe my cousin, brings over bagels and cream cheese for breakfast. I don’t care for the bagels. I only want to eat the cream cheese. It’s high up on the counter, but I manage to sneak a fingerful from the block of cheese. I think I was scolded, but I went back for seconds.
Swan Lake
Four years old. Preparing for my fifth birthday party. My dad made me a chocolate sheet cake with deep blue frosting. We were adding plastic swans and ballerinas, and he told me not to remove any swans once they were placed onto the cake. I did it anyway, and cried when the frosting came off. He said, “I told you not to do that!”
Broken
Location: Left arm
Cause: Overzealous playing on the rings/monkey bars at school
Diagnosis: Broken bones, in two places
Treatment: Cast for six weeks
Follow-up: Arm is fine, but I was sad because the cast didn’t match my princess halloween costume in first grade.
Fly
I am seven. We are apartment hunting. My parents are getting a divorce. My dad takes me to look at an apartment. There’s a dead fly on the window sill. We take the apartment.
Dollhouse
Seven or eight or maybe even nine years old. I am helping my aunt build a Playmobil dollhouse. I am sitting on the floor of the living room, delicately putting the plastic parts together. “The Girl from Ipanema” is playing on vinyl in the next room. I am very content. I never want the song to end.
Yellow
Location: Left arm
Cause: Playing outside in my cousin’s backyard in New Jersey. A yellowjacket nest is attached to the play structure. One lands on my arm. I freak out, and my cousin’s bright idea is to swat it off of me with a piece of cardboard. Instead, I’m stung (or bit, or whatever you call it).
Diagnosis: 1. Severe pain in the arm. 2. Cousin is an idiot! 3. Thankfully, I’m not allergic to yellow jackets.
Treatment: Ice, and a sobbing phone call to my dad.
Follow-up: Ongoing fear of bees, yellow jackets, wasps, etc. My cousin is less of an idiot now.
Marty
Location: Heart, Mind, Imagination
Cause: Watching “Back to the Future” for the first time, at eight or nine years old, at my aunt and uncle’s house in Ann Arbor, MI.
Diagnosis: Amazed at sci fi themes. Crush on Michael J. Fox.
Treatment: Watch all three “Back to the Future” movies obsessively from mid 90’s-present. Also watch most of “Family Ties” when it airs on Nick at Nite! Ponder the space time continuum. Quote incessantly with my brother and dad.
Follow-up: Attended a back to back to back screening of all three at the Castro Theater in 2014, followed by a one night special screening of Part II on October 21, 2015, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film franchise, and to reflect on what the world is ACTUALLY like on October 21st, rather than what the movie depicts.
Rainforest
Location: Feet
Cause: Hiking through a rainforest on Oahu with my brother and cousin, getting caught in the rain.
Diagnosis: Soaking wet, but especially in my shoes, which become gross and squishy.
Treatment: Complain until I’m told to be quiet. Get new shoes.
Follow-up: A photograph of my brother and me, walking through the rainforest, hanging on my bedroom wall. Fond memories.
Most of the memories I recorded involve being uncomfortable in some way, physically and/or emotionally. I think what sticks with us into adulthood are those moments of discomfort. I latch onto negative experiences, in hopes of avoiding them in the future. Sometimes it’s as simple as listening to my dad’s instructions, or packing an extra layer of clothing for the rain. All of these snippets represent a learning experience which has worked its way into my adulthood.
