The boots you're wearing are getting worn down and you think about the pair you used to have that you liked better but they got left in the back of your closet because they needed to be repaired and you never got around to it. Theyre gone and so are the people who made them and all the knowledge of how to. Your grandmother made a hat for you when you were a child and you kept it after it got too small but that's gone too and so is the technique for making it and so is that specific smell that always brings back memories of your grandmother. You look in the mirror and you think maybe you can see your parents faces from when you were a child but you have no pictures of them and youre slowly starting to forget what they looked like, you're even forgetting what you used to look like. Your childhood diary is gone, no matter how much you wish you could look at it again because the details of your old life are blurring together and fading away. You had a falling out with a friend and then lost touch with them when you changed schools and you'd always wanted to reconnect with them but now they're dead and so is their family and the entirety of the school you shared. That neighbor who made those candies you'd loved and never answered you when you asked how she made them because the recipe was a family secret. The teacher from middle school that you despised but who your father insisted was probably a good person just going through a hard time is gone and you'll never know if your father was right. Those distant cousins you saw at big family gatherings but never got to know. The song that annoyed you because it was popular and it was played too much will never be played again. Your favourite book. The ingredients for the recipe your father used to make a lot because it was simple and easy. The wedding outfit your mother kept to give to you if you ever got married. The slang you used with others from your age group that was never recorded in any dictionary. The really obscure old legend that your best friend's dad loved to tell pieces of to you and your friend. The method your aunt used for that hairstyle she liked. The casual rivalries between people in different regions of your hometown. The sports you grew up playing.