The funny thing about sorting through your life and packing up what really matters if the little discoveries you make along the way.
After meeting online about a year earlier, Shawshank and I met in person almost exactly 19 years ago. I flew up to Vancouver on April 23, 2001, my first BIG TRIP alone. Aside from an afternoon in Niagara Falls, it was my first trip outside the country. I spent a lot of the flight writing about how I felt, silver ink on black paper, flying over farmland. While going through things in the first closet, I found that little spiral-bound book in a box of forgotten clutter. It was nice to read the things I wrote back then, when I was totally in love with this guy I’d never actually met. That book was one of the first things I put in the bag I’ve packed for his trip back to Canada. I want him to remember what we had before life got in the way.
The other day, I opened a box. I don’t remember what else as in the box, or where the box came from, but I found something inside it that I only vaguely remembered and thought had disappeared a decade ago: a strip of pictures from a photo booth.
I remember everything about the day he took those pictures. It was May 1, 2001, a week after my arrival in Vancouver. We were at the Vancouver airport, and I was in tears at the gate. I’d had the best week ever, but it was terribly expensive for me to make the trip, so neither of us knew when we’d be able to meet up again. We’d stopped at a photo booth earlier and taken some pictures of the two of us. “Sit here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.” A few minutes later, he came back, and handed me another strip of photos. “Take these to remember the trip.”
In the Forgotten Closet, I found a smooshed basket of stuffed animals. Most of the plush were random cute things, bought on the spur of the moment. But at the bottom – probably since it was there the longest – I found a bear from the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. I had sent it to him for either a birthday or Christmas and I remember how I really struggled with the decision to buy spend $80 on a teddy bear.
We’ll celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary this summer. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs over that time. It’s been mostly your typical married life, with a couple of good “ups” thrown in there. Sadly, the “downs” have been really down. However, we’ve gotten through things, even when one or both of us didn’t think we could or would.
Maybe a fresh start with a clean slate will be a good thing for us.
