Memories Made Me

I definitely enjoy when I am reading the works of someone else and am able to make connections with my past. I most definitely have a thing for cats. Not necessarily in a crazy I am going to have 50 cats and 10 litter boxes kind of way, but I definitely love them. On one occasion my roommates and I went to a farm to get a kitten for our house and it didn't quite go how they expected it. When we arrived there were three kittens all different but all equally cute. The man said if people didn't pick up the rest soon he was going to drown them. I was appalled by the notion that anyone would do such a thing to the cute fuzzy kittens so I decided to take action. We took all three of them home and later found them all homes. I almost always have a cat at my house and I know that I associate them with comforting memories.

When I was just nine months old my biological father left my mother and I and he didn't make an effort so I really didn't know who he was. When I was two years old he showed up out of the blue and I didn't quite understand anything that was going on. He had a court order stating that I go and stay with him for a couple days a week. I didn't really know this man and I didn't really know where I was going at first. I was just beginning to understand and learn about the world at that age and then it had just been turned upside down. I only had to go there a few times before custody changed and he was out of my life again but I will always remember his cat. When I had to go to his

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house I felt very uncomfortable and shy, but he had a large fluffy cat that took to me instantly. I would just lay there with the cat, being comforted by it's soft fur and vibrant purring. I felt like no one could mess with me if I had my cat friend.

I suppose that is why I have always been so drawn to cats throughout my life and always have to have one. I can easily relate to McPherson's story when I think about cats. Much like he recalls his memories of Gweneth Lawson I have those memories deep inside me. "I know I smiled, dear Gloria. I smiled with lemonness of her and the loving of her pressed deep into those saving places of my private self." (McPherson page 1084) To this day when I see a cat out side I try to catch it and take care of it even when my friends think I am being crazy. Every cat I have had seems to have there own little personality and seem to know when someone is feeling down and needs affection and companionship. Cats have always been an amazing source of comfort to me and always will be.

When I was younger I remember in school when we started learning about heritage and where people come from. We talked about all the different people who came to settle in America from foreign lands in pursuit of happiness and freedom. Taking nothing but the clothes on there backs and there children to start a better life. Also that the Indians were here long before the settlers and were a proud people that lived off the land. I started to wonder what my family history was and where my ancestors were from. When I got home from school one day I asked my mother about it and she said we were part Cherokee Indian and part German on her side though she was unsure how much of either. After that I don't really remember it coming up in conversation or

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any traditions we followed so I never really