#stayingaway

I found home in a packet of cookies today. it's crazy and silly and overly nostalgic-nostalgic in a way that I shouldn't allow myself to be, really-but it was a surprise to find what I thought could only be found at home many thousands of miles away from home. chocolate-covered cookies unlike any other chocolate-covered cookies, not because they taste all that different but because they were mine and I knew them at a time when everything seemed certain. they were my favorite when other things on my "favorite things" list included dressing up as snow white after school and orchestrating deadly battles between dinosaurs and barbies.

the cookies I bought today were baked in a factory that I've passed dozens of times in the car with my mom, as I stared mindlessly at the other cars passing by. I never thought much of it at the time. at least nothing past the brief joy of finding the smell of freshly baked cookies in the middle of a highway. but today, they meant everything. belonging, personal history, family, home.