Every time I start thinking about the past, inevitably, I start thinking about how I got started writing. But the thing is… I can’t remember it. I don’t remember that point in my life when I stopped and said, “I’m going to write.” I didn’t have authors that inspired me to write. It’s weird, but I think it was just a part of who I was. Who I am. And who I will be.

I can’t sit here and say I’ll never write again, because that would be like a part of me dying off. I would be incomplete. But this got me thinking about all the firsts I had growing up. Most of them are not at all spectacular. But here there are, for your ridicule or enjoyment. Take your pick.

1. My first music video – This is a weird one to remember. I don’t know why it sticks out in my head. But I was an eighties child, when MTV was cool and actually played music videos. It was Karma Chameleon by Culture Club.

I was maybe… three? Four? I remember being in my living room and that video would come on the TV and I would stop whatever I was doing and dance to that song.

2. My first kiss – You didn’t think I’d forget this did you? It was oddly unremarkable. I was seven. The boy had asked my dad for permission to go out on a date.(I know. Whatever happened to those days?) Anyway, we were walking around the pool on the base, and he pulled me to the side where the movie theater was. I remember a Top Gun poster. This one, actually:

Anyway, I remember the cutest little peck on the lips, not quite centered. The boy’s name was Ryan. I don’t remember anything else about him, but he might be what inspired my fascination with blond men… That just occurred to me.

3. My first movie in the theater – Star Wars V: Empire Strikes Back. That’s right. I was bred from an early age to love the Stars Wars universe. I may not pay as much attention to it now, but it will always strike a sense of nostalgia and a happy sigh from me when I think about this movie.

4. My first story – Even though I don’t remember what prompted me to start writing, I do remember my first story. It was a fairy tale called Ghost Cinderella. Basically, I wrote Cinderella as a ghost story. Everyone, every character was a ghost. I was in sixth grade. The first book I tell people about was a historical romance involving pirates and the American Revolution. I was… sixteen I think. Maybe fifteen. I think I still have that one somewhere.

5. Finally, my newest first: my first print book. That actually came in the mail yesterday. See? Isn’t it pretty?And there’s my Five Things I Remember as my First. What are some first things you remember from your life?