INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE

            During the short time we live on this earth we have many different experiences. Some of them quickly fade away and we remember them no more, but some of them stay in our memory for a long time even though we sometimes wish they wouldn't. Countee Cullen wrote a poem called "Incident", about an experience he had early in his life. .
             In the poem, Cullen describes his trip to Baltimore. He was eight years old at the time. He writes that he was happy and his heart was filled with glee, but what sounds like a joyous trip soon takes a wrong turn. He has his first encounter with racism when a Baltimorean calls him a nigger. Before this trip, he had a sort of innocence or naivety that the world was perfect and that everybody was equal. There were many events that occurred during his trip, but the only incident he remembers is the one that shattered that innocence and made him experienced. In conclusion he writes, "Of all the things that happened there that's all that I remember". .
             In my life I have also survived some bad experiences. In some of the incidents all I remember is the bad that happened and not the good. When I was two years old, my father left us. I don't remember him leaving, or him for that matter, but his desertion had a very big impact a little later in my life. I thought my life was fine and that I wasn't missing anything but I soon learned different. I was in the 2nd grade and our class was getting ready for Father's Day, which was one week away. I remember the beginning of my day was great. I vaguely recall winning some award and being in high spirits until we started our art class. Our assignment was to make a card, to draw a tie on it, all that good stuff. I liked the first part, but then we had to write five reasons why we love our dad. Before this exercise I never really though of him that much, I always heard that he wasn't a bad man, and he didn't leave because he didn't want us, but because he had to work some place.