Dear Future Emily

Dear Future Emily,

You were a silly little girl. I hope you remember that.

Creating "dances" and performing plays. Not self conscious or embarrassed. Not yet. Trying on Sam's old dance costumes that were just the right size for you. Recording them to watch and laugh about.

Reading books. Filling your head with knowledge. Devouring anything you could find at the library. Remember when you would get three books from the school library, read them before you fell asleep only to return to school and get three more? Remember how devastated you were when you could only go to the library once a week in third grade? Thankfully that changed.

Do you remember the first camera you had, the one that was a birthday present for your 8th birthday? It broke so you got another...only to break that one too. Daddy took it apart and put it back together again but couldn't get it to power on.

It was a foggy morning when you started middle school. Being one of the 1st stops on the bus, you took your seat with uncertainty. You stared out the window, watching the bus roll past hills and ponds covered in the morning mist. Wondering who will I sit next to at lunch? and dreading the idea of being alone. But you weren't. You had Ekene, and, even if you didn't realize it, she would become an important part to your middle school life.

Emily, do you remember how much you cried when you woke up to Maggie's devastating, doggy whines? Seeing her, at her spot behind the couch, her legs out in the unnatural splits, unable to get up. Trying to help, but your help was useless. It was 2 am, you woke mom and daddy up, but there was nothing you could do to save Maggie, the black lab. You could only sob as you realized she reached the inevitable fate of being put to sleep.

Do you remember the moment you realized how amazing your friends are? How they stuck by you in your Divergent Obsessed Phase? How they embraced it with you. Gabby may have got you started on reading the books but all of you dressed up like each faction and wore those outfits to school. You all dressed up like ninjas for twin day.

Will you remember today, the day you started to realize how life works? how it is a series of events, some unfortunate some amazing. Ups and down worse than a roller coaster. People, places, ideas are all things that slip away too easy.

Today's the day you realized you need to write down. Capture the good and the bad with full honesty. Even the things you would rather forget. The day you realized even more how important your blog is.  

xx

 Any memories you don't want to forget or feel like you'll never forget?