Home

She had not expected a letter. Nonetheless, it was there, written in her best friend's handwriting. Above it, taking up one single line, was a note written in her own writing. The page was creased in many places where it had once been folded into a paper football or perhaps something more spectacular. Behind the battered letter was a spiral notebook. The cover was missing, and the edges were yellowed, but she recognized it the second she saw it. She let out a teary laugh as she thought back years ago.

"We need a notebook so that we can pass notes to each other!" One excited girl said to the other.

"Yeah, and we'll even create our own symbols for each letter of the alphabet, that way if someone else reads it, they won't know what it says!" The other girl said as she began writing out the alphabet.

She thought about the days they spent in class half watching movies and half writing notes about which boys they liked. She laughed as she read notes about being nervous about talking to a boy, and notes in which they debated whether or not boys liked them.

The two of them had been friends since middle school, and there were so many memories! Like the time in freshman year when all of their friends went to the homecoming dance as a huge group; they spent most of the time in a circle taking turns walking into the middle doing dance moves such as the sprinkler, shopping cart, and the ever-popular chicken dance. Or what about the times they went to the water park and spent the day going up, down, around, screaming, laughing, and of course looking at all the cute guys. Oh! And all the different nights they had sleep overs and would stay up late just talking about anything and everything.

She realized that her face had twisted into one giant smile without her knowledge. The two of them really had some great times together. A tear slowly slid down her cheek as she put down the notebook and thought about everything from the past to the present. They had been so close, spent so many days together, and now they were several states away and only talked when they both had time to get in a few texts. Somehow, though, she knew that through everything, even time and space could not keep them apart.

Tears mixed with water as the water from the shower flowed down her face. She wanted to go home. She missed her friends, she missed the area she grew up in, and missed having all the seasons. But who was she kidding? If she went back, she'd have no where to go. No. She took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. That chapter of her life was over, she needed to accept it, and just think about the things she had going for her now. A wonderful man and a very successful relationship, she was going to school to be able to start her career and in only a few short years they'd be able to get a place together and hopefully even start the family they had talked about.

She began reading the letter again as she wrapped her hair in a towel and laid on the bed. She read the words over and over and got a strange feeling that everything was exactly the way it was suppose to be. The words danced through her head. "When you miss home, pay reverence to what you had, but don't neglect what you have." She closed the notebook and put it back on the shelf. She had not expected a letter.