1. Womanhood
1.1. Becoming a woman doesn't happen overnight.
1.1.1. "The child in me sulked and said it was all in fun, but the woman in me flinched at the thought of the malicious attack that I had led."
1.2. Realizing you are a woman can happen at strange times.
1.2.1. "...and that was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began. That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood."
1.2.2. "Joy and rage and wild animal gladness and shame become tangled together in the multicolored skein of fourteen-going-on-fifteen as I recall that devastating moment when I was suddenly more woman than child,"
2. Childhood
2.1. Being a child means not worrying about your parents and money.
2.1.1. "The world has lost its boundary lines. My mother, who was small and soft, was now the strength of the family; my father, who was the rock on which the family had been built, was sobbing like the tiniest child."
2.2. Being compassionate also means growing up.
2.2.1. "...one cannot have both compassion and innocence."
3. Poverty
3.1. Being in poverty puts pressure on entire families.
3.1.1. "I did not notice my father’s silence, for he was always silent these days, nor did I notice my mother’s absence, for she always worked until well into evening."
3.2. Growing up in poverty can make people question pretty or expensive things.
3.2.1. "For some perverse reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place; they were too beautiful; they said too much that we could not understand; they did not make sense."
4. Summer
4.1. Summer is when kids feel they have the most freedom.
4.1.1. "Joey and I were free to run wild in the sun with other children similarly situated."
4.2. Summer days blur together when you aren't doing anything different every day.
4.2.1. "For the most part, those days are ill-defined in my memory, running together and combining like a fresh watercolor painting left out in the rain."