Just a Shoe Box

My shoe box is my most indispensable item.  To everyone that sees it, it's just a shoe box.  To me, it holds some of the most valuable things I've ever had.  It holds old letters between my friends and I, old trinkets that have been long forgotten about, but once meant so much.  Now, I only allow myself to look in this box once   every few months.  I like it better that way.  I have a couple of boxes like this.  That way I get to look at a couple things every month.  I have one box for old cards, one for letters, one for notes, and one just for things that my best friends and I exchanged in 7th grade year.  That one is probably my favorite.  Every time I peer into the box, I see neon colored stress toys and magazine cut outs of one direction.  Pictures of before I had braces, and when I had my old glasses.  Shoe strings that once held so many memories.  Pieces of paper that we would pass around in class, pencils that changed color when you wrote with them.  It reminds me of a time when we were together every day, now, I would give anything to see her once every couple of months.  I only see her a couple times a year if I'm lucky, and I miss her so much.  That shoe box always gives me hope for the next time we're together, so we can take pictures, print them out and date them, and put them in our boxes.  Sometimes, when we see eachother, we'll leave things behind, on accident or on purpose.  Like this last time, I left my favorite blanket she always adored because she claimed it smelled just like me.  She thought it was an accident, but I knew she needed it far more than I did.  She's left things like sweatshirts and fuzzy socks at my house.  Long story short.  My shoe boxes are important.  They've held more than shoes, for me, they hold hope for the future, and a love for the past.

L.G