Sometimes when I sit in class overwhelmed and tempted to drop out of college, I like to shuffle through my memory filing cabinet to the days that have gone by. Today was one of those days. I like to make a game out of it by thinking back to the oldest memories I have, or the most obscure ones that have remained clear as day in my mind for no real reason. Some of these memories that popped into my head may not mean anything to anybody else on this earth, even my parents, but to me, they help ground me. They take me back to a time when all I really knew was Corryton and after-school shows and security. I'll list a few so maybe they might do the same for somebody else searching for simpler times.

1. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I was in the process of reading "harder" books. I remember standing in the back room of my house, the playroom, while my dad was sitting at the computer. I was reading from a book based on Pirates of the Caribbean when I came across the word "brilliant." I was reading out loud, and when I was able to say that word without hesitation, my dad swung around in his chair and said with wide eyes, "Good job, Caroline. How'd you know you to say that word?" "I don't know, Dad," I replied. I remember that exchange like it happened yesterday.

2. I was driving my battery-operated Barbie jeep around the right side of the house and didn't see my sister standing around the corner. I ran over her. We were only four or five at the time. Dad dropped the water hose and ran over to her. I was really scared, but I pretended not to care. I'm still not sure why.

3. My mom used to always throw big Halloween parties when I was little. Maybe she wanted to start a tradition, or maybe she just wanted me to have memories to look back on. Maybe she wanted an excuse to put out Halloween decorations and clean the house up. I remember bobbing for apples on the front porch in orange, plastic tubs. The ends of my braids got wet when I was dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Our cat, Tridot, would slink up and under my friends as they cheered me on. He would then trot down the concrete stairs and go off somewhere. The "Monster Mash" would be playing out of a giant black boombox that we still have out on the front porch.

4. Again, I don't know how old I was, but I was young enough that I was running around the house in nothing but black sheer tights before church one day. I slipped down the stairs and went head over heels all the way to the bottom. They are hardwood, so they really sent me flying. I remember Mom screaming at the top and I remember seeing the stairs two inches from my face then the ceiling then the stairs. Then I remember sitting on a examination table with Dad next to me and the doctor pointing at a tiny, tiny crack in my head x-ray. To this day, Dad will fight me over this. He said it wasn't there and I was imagining things. I remember it. Right at the top of the x-ray. Less than half an inch long. The examination table was metal. I'm not imagining stuff, Dad.

5. My sister and I used to have china dolls. Like, the creepy ones with the silk dresses and ivory faces. My parents got them for us because I guess they thought all young girls need to own a china doll once in their life. We used to lay facing each other in our twin bed in our old bedroom, our nursery. We would make the dolls talk to each other and act out scenarios. It would still be light outside, but our parents would send us to be "so that we would remain on schedule." We were so bored for hours.

6. My dad built a fort for us in the back yard. It had two swings and the gymnastics rings. It had a sandbox underneath the steps that we never got in because it was always full of bugs or dirt or mud. There was also a rope ladder that had about seven rungs on it. It didn't lead to anywhere, just hung between two boards. Dad would never let us climb it without somebody watching, even when we got older. Red clay would stay cold and damp under the first landing on the fort and I would dig in it sometimes. I found two Lego toys underneath it one day and I thought I was an archeologist. It was a caveman Lego and a dinosaur Lego. I named them "Cavey" and "Dino." I washed them off and took them upstairs. One night, instead of playing with the china dolls, I put on a play for Elizabeth starring Cavey and Dino. It was called "The Cavey and Dino Show." I did that every night for at least a year.

7. My sister found a Robin's egg in the front garden beds. I told her not to take it up to the fort because she would drop and break it. Did she listen to me? No. We made it to the swings before she dropped it. The inside had small, orange spots on it. I cried because she had killed the baby bird even thought it was already dead for days. It had fallen out of one of the many nests that birds build under our front porch roof.

8. My mom and dad once bought us one of those small plastic houses. They set it up in the side yard between the porch and the small garden that was there. I only remember playing in it one time, and it has stuck with me. I guess we had left it out overnight because the next day, it was full of spiders and a wasp nest was being built in the corner. Dad told us not to go in it.

9. In Ms. Upton's second grade class, we went on a field trip to the Zoo. Or I think it was the Zoo at least. I remember being called to line up, but a piece of hair was getting on my last nerve. My mom had curled my hair with foam rollers so I had huge ringlets all over my head that bounced like crazy. One piece was especially voluminous and bouncy, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. As I was walking to the door to line up, I snipped off the- rather large- chunk of hair. My mother whipped me when I got home. I had ballet pictures the next night and my mother couldn't smooth the sprig of hair that was left down to my head for anything.

10. One Christmas morning, my sister and I were taking turns playing the hot new game that had just come out: Guitar Hero. My Nana had come over because she liked to see what we got for Christmas, as most Nana's do. We were in the living room swinging around the guitar when I accidentally knocked off her decorative votive candle set she had got as a gift just the other day. She apparently was really upset about this because she started to cry a little. I think she really, really liked those votive candles. I feel bad about it to this day. I also think my mother gets more emotional on Christmas Day then she does on any other day of the year because just this past year, Elizabeth broke a lamp on the piano while opening gifts. My mother cried again. There's probably some underlying issue there, but until we decide to address it, I'll just stick with making light of it in this column.

While these memories have absolutely no meaning in the long run, and the weren't even "memories" when you think about it, but rather just recollections, they still are the most important things that I hold dear to in my mind. The small things that my Dad or Mom did during flashes in the pan of my life remain crystal clear in my brain. At the same time, I frequently forget that we have gone on week-long Disney vacations. Other people might think it's weird or even unsettling that I remember such vivid details of insignificant moments of my life, but to me, they are what my life has been built off of. Mom, Dad, and Elizabeth, thank you for making those seconds worth filing away.