Do Not Return to Sender

“I feel the same way. ” Love, Kate

“See you at the cathedral steps.” Love, Kate

“Bring my friend back. The old Acey who is always laughing and opening up. I miss her.” Hurting, Kate

“How is your seatmate doing? Does he still look cute? Tell him I said hi. P.S. My seatmate also looks good today. Do I say hi for you too?” Always, Kate the Great

 

I have a bag full of letters and stick-on notes from Kate. I haven’t thrown a single sheet ever, and it has been 15 years ago when we started exchanging messages way back Freshmen year in high school.

She is one great person (apart from my father) who woke up my muse and motivated me to spill my thoughts on ink. She edited my work, introduced smart phrases for me to use and even put a smiley on her favorites among my works.

We exchanged short notes about the littlest interesting highlights of our day, the one-minute heaven with our crush, the creeps and annoyance from random people, and just about anything that are not even pertinent to share. We also wrote each other long letters and I remembered her calling one of mine as “Acey’s Chronicles.” In our long letters, we pour out our frustrations in life, questions to God, juvenile emotions and heartaches towards each other.

She was my high school best friend. She will always be my one great friend. Best friends forever.

I have considered growing up and putting away dust-gatherers from my place for a number of times, together with high school workbooks and college notes and stuff, but I ended up reading again letters from Kate and packing them in another box or bag until the time I would have to clean up closets again…

Kate died after battling with cancer some ten years ago. There are still times when I wished a single note from her would be posted on the door like she always did before. A note from Kate might perhaps help me get through a horrible Monday, or tame me from a wrestle with deadlines, or delight me a midst parenting woes. But now letters are all I have-each a story to inspire and a friendly advice to heed, for the rest of my life with her simply looking down on me from the skies…

 

I miss you, Kate.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_writing_challenge/leftovers/

A Metaphor for Life Lessons

Am I not over it yet? Am I supposed to come back? Or am I just being reminded about the truth about what friendship really is?

I have been having recurring dreams of places from my high school. In most of those dreams, I am strolling the hallways, spending time in the library, looking for someone at the quadrangle, talking with someone on the bench—all these scenes with my present self who has been out of high school for more than a decade now, and in most scenes, I am not even with the important people from my high school.

Dreaming about high school is a metaphor for life lessons. Dreams about high school take you back to the priorities, principles and values you have taken for granted and you have to relearn. Although it might suggest inadequacies of the things you are capable of, thereby meaning you have to be schooled again, a dream that places you in school is nothing short of a reminder that even if life has taken you to places far, wide and high, there will always be lessons to learn.

Having recurring dreams about my high school has made me succumb to the realization that my dreams are trying to teach me about valuing real friends I meet in high school because I will never meet people like them even in another lifetime. The high school I attended is very far from how it looked more than 10 years ago. However, having walked its halls once more in one of class reunions I have attended, or even having passed quite often by the streets where it stands, I realized that behind the beautifully renovated edifice, still lie the memories of my high school days that are so timeless that I can still vividly imagine how cozy the places where I have shared secrets, stories, hopes and dreams with important people I call high school friends, still are.

What lesson does your dream teach you? Tell me about it.

 

( http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/freudian-flips/ )

Flashback Friday: High School Never Ends

Talking about milestones, I would definitely not miss bragging about the splendor of my high school days because I met real people I would never meet just as real and as for keeps in other milestones of my life.
It might be enough for some that they get to attend or simply pass through high school; for some they might think of not having to go through high school again. Well mine happens to be a blast. Lucky me. And I would not mind being in high school again.