#devittjonathon

jonathon-devitt-sheet1

This is a short story about a teenage love story I overheard at a bar last year. It was being told by a man with clean-shaped stubble and short crew-cut. I envied his leather jacket, it was one of those expensive resells. It was not a reprint which is why i feel like my envy was justified.

He was speaking about how he liked to write anonymous love letters to people in his class. He wrote them to the boys and girls, gay and straight and he explained his reasoning at the end of the story (worth the read) but interestingly enough, he did it for them.

He was mentioned that he grew up in a neglected town with a small school. Nearly every kid who had both parents, their parents would be both working. And every kid with a single parent was either unemployed, working two jobs or in and out of jail or detox.

This background was important I feel. He mentioned how he was maturing rather fast, he said this was because he had enjoyed writing music and reading poetry in the library at school. However, I felt like he left a few important details out because teenagers don’t really mature until beyond adulthood and by then they are adults, right?

He started writing these love letters at the beginning of year 5 and all of these letters followed a simply format, sort of like this:

“Dear Abbey, I wanted to say thank you for your friendship. I know times are tough for you right now but I truly believe that you have a life full of light ahead of you. If I showed you a picture of your future, you’d have no issues working to get there; but I can’t. I want you to be strong. Your friends love you. Your Teachers love you. And I love you. You install happiness and laughter in everyone you talk to. Your Pet Rock”

Eventually, this letters started getting more sophisticated and personal. People started taking credit for the letters but everyone knew that the person wouldn’t come forward easily because these letters were sincere and personal.

He mentioned that everyone knew him as the artsy quiet type and by the end of Year 6 on the evening of the graduation he was invited to read out one of his Poems.

“To each and everyone one of you, I here leave you with one last letter. I was friend’s with every single one of you from afar. I wrote to you the truth and now we are here listening keenly to each other. That’s all i wanted. For everyone to listen. When we spend less time talking we spend more time watching, listening and begin to appreciate what we have. I appreciate all of you, thus finishing the reading of this last letter”.