My first fireworks show

Every once in a while, a memory from my childhood comes back to me vividly.

Sometimes it doesn’t even have anything to do with what I’m doing, but the memory floods in and I can’t help but relive it. Sometimes the memories are good and other times they are bad, but they’re my memories just the same.

This past week, as I was thinking about the Fourth of July fireworks my family will see, when a memory came back to me.

It was when I saw my first big fireworks show. I was probably in elementary school, maybe fifth or sixth grade. I had never been to a big fireworks show and was kind of nervous about it. I wasn’t sure what to expect. My Uncle Mark decided to take my family to one.

Just as the fireworks were about to start, my youngest sister had to use the bathroom. I got volunteered to take her. As we were coming out of the bathroom, I recalled bright green lights flashes. The fireworks had started. My sister and I couldn’t remember which way to go and we wondering around aimlessly searching for my family while fireworks shot off.

I can recall seeing children with blue and green glow sticks in their hands or around their necks shouting loudly with delight as the fireworks erupted into the sky. I, however, was starting to panic. I couldn’t find my uncle and my sister was starting to ask me why it was taking so long to get back to them.

I just remember not really caring about the fireworks at all, but then I decided to try and use the fireworks to my advantage. I would wait to start walking until another group of fireworks would shoot off, I would use that as my only light source.

The 10 to 15 minute fireworks show seemed like forever as my sister and I tried to find our family.

It was confusing and disorienting, but eventually we decided to go back by the bathrooms and wait. We never even got to enjoy the fireworks display because we were worried about finding my uncle. After the show was over, we found my uncle.

He asked us if we enjoyed the fireworks and not wanting to disappoint him, both my sister and I lied and said we did. I was embarrassed by panicking, but was relieved to find my uncle. I didn’t want him to know we never even saw most of the fireworks because we were looking for him because he went out of his way to do something nice for us.

Over the years, I’ve seen many fireworks displays to make up for the one I’ve missed and I’m hoping to see many more.