Think about high school, when you were riding the bus one morning. Maybe you were exhausted, after only two hours of sleep. You were sipping an energy drink, barely keeping your eyes open as you try to finish a homework assignment that’s due first period. You can’t focus your eyes enough to read the paper, so you give up, but the teacher never collects it.
What about middle school? Did you have that one really funny teacher who knew how to have a fun class? Did they have a sarcastic attitude, and make sassy remarks to the popular kids that made everyone laugh? Was it comforting to be on that side of the situation?
Did you ever make up a really elaborate game with your friends that would take hours to play? You only played it a few times, but it became an initiation to your friend group. Were you heroes, or surviving in the wilderness?
Remember how autumn felt when you gathered all the leaves from your yard just to jump into them? You and your friends or siblings took turns jumping in, yelling about how it’s not as fluffy after they jumped in. When you heard your names called in for dinner, did you pretend you didn’t hear?
Did you ever have to put your gloves and hat and scarf near the radiator or space heater so they could dry while you are dinner, just so you can go back outside again? You would rush to eat the hot meal, and sip hot chocolate out of your favorite mug, but you kept checking to make sure the sun hadn’t set yet.
Can you remember a time when your head didn’t touch the underside of the kitchen table? Did you hide under it, for fun or otherwise? When feet shuffled past you, did you giggle to yourself as those feet call your name?
Have you fallen asleep on a long car ride, sitting up in your car seat, and woken up just as you pull into your driveway? Did you pretend you were still sleeping so you would be carried to your bed? Was it dark and warm outside? Did you feel safe?
Do you remember feeling so small, and still feeling so safe?
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
