Week 2 Prompts

Looking in that photo album, I see--

      Looking through old photo albums is something I do often. I enjoy scrap booking, so looking at pictures is something I do frequently. As I gaze through this particular photo album, I see many memories from childhood, to recently. I see my first trip to Disney World and I can see the joy overflowing both my brother and my faces. Those two weeks spent in Florida, doing something I had only dreamed of, was something I will never forget. I remember the intensity of the heat, the smells of the ice cream and popcorn, and all the other delicious smells that flowed through the theme park, the thousands of people crowding the lines, and the fictional characters running around to make some young child's dreams come true. I see photos from the bright lights in the Mickey Mouse night light parade, and it made me remember the way the lights shined off my moms face, and you could see the joy she had inside her, being able to experience this with my brother and I.
      Then as I flip through more pages I see photos from my 16th birthday party. It was pouring rain that summer day in July, but that didn't stop me and my friends from having an amazing time! I saw pictures of me and my best friend, Alyssa covered head to toe with ice cream cake, from the cake war we had. Then I saw the photos of my first car that my parents so graciously gave to me for that special 16th birthday. It was a maroon Ford Contour, and I love it! It was so clean, and smelled so good!
      Next, I cam across photos of soccer, and basketball season. Pictures of my teammates and I in huddles before games, and the action shots of me kicking and shooting as sports were such a big part of me in high school. Also, I came across the photos from our van rides to and from sporting events. Those were the most fun us girls as a team had. Whether we won or lost, we all bonded together as a team acting silly and being loud on van rides.
      As I skimmed through more pages, I came across my high school graduation. Wow! What a great day that was. I saw the photos of me and my friends celebrating our great accomplishment. I saw the joy on each on of our faces to be done with that chapter of our lives, although we felt sadness as well. Sadness that after four years we all had to leave each other and go on our separate paths. After graduation, this came to the end of this particular photo album, so as I am looking through a photo album, these are the things I saw.

The stuff I've collected over the years in my little box/bureau drawer/keepsake chest marks every step of my way.

      Throughout junior high and high school, I would keep things that had a significant meaning to me. Notes from friends, flowers petals, pictures, and letters. A long boot box is what I saved my keepsakes in and it is so jammed pack, it is starting to bust at the seams. The notes in the box mark my past crushes, the made up names with best friends so no one knew exactly who we were talking about, and secrets only best friends knew. Notes from my first "love" in high school were there. He was so kind and so sweet to me, but at my high school, it was so small everyone knew everything and that made it hard for us to become more to each other and what I thought was love was more infatuation than love. It was OK though, it gave me something worth going to school for, even it was for a shirt time.
      I soon came along a book from high school that I saved and as I skimmed through the pages I came across a yellow rose petal. I remembered the day I received that bouquet of flowers immediately as it was the day after a very hard earned win over a basketball team that should have blown us out. My dad was my coach at the time and he sent me the bouquet to say thank you to me and to his girls on the team thanking us for all of the hard work we had put forth during the season. I skimmed further through the pages of the book and came across a red rose with a note and a picture that came from my high school crush. I remembered meeting him in the empty class room where he gave me a beautiful bouquet of red roses and an adorable tiger for Valentine's Day. I remember the utter joy that filtered through my body and we captured the moment with a picture that has been kept for almost 5 years.
      Continuing to rummage through the old boot box, I came across numerous pictures, each capturing a different memory. One picture stuck out the most to me. It was me and three of my closets friends at my old house in Dexter where we were all sticking our heads in the different glass squares on my garage doors and we are all making different faces. This made me remember that one night particularly. It was the first night I had ever sneaked out of my house. It was a night of adventure, but a night of severe punishment as well, since we obviously got caught. It really is true that parents know everything. There were a lot of other pictures each showing a different time in my life and the different memories that will never be forgotten.
      Next were the letters I came across. When I was 16 years old, I found out that I had a half brother that I didn't know about. I soon met him and he was in a lot of trouble and spent a year or so at a facility where he was only allowed visitors once in a while. So to get to know each other, we exchanged many letters and I kept them to read and try to figure out if there was anything I could do to help him. This met a lot to him especially because he felt that me and my family wouldn't want to know him or let him into our lives. We proved him differently. There were also letters from a guy that I met at camp on summer. He became a significant part of my life as we dated for a year. He lived in Rhode Island, and I in Maine so we wrote to each other everyday, a long with talking continuously on the phone until we got to see each other again. In my old boot box that I have saved for so long, these are the memories I pull out of it.

It was the first, but not the best--or was it?

      First love...Everyone remembers their first loves and what that person met to them. When I was 17, a senior in high school, I met this guy in my home town that was very well known in Dexter, but not in a good way. Maybe it was his bad boy image I liked so much about him, well that and the fact that he was so cute, but we played hours of basketball together and got to know each other as much as possible. My parents didn't approve of his and my relationship so it made it very difficult to see him. A lot of the time we hung out behind my parents back, until they finally gave in and let me see him. I remember the first time he told me he loved me. It was a summer night, stars were shinning, and we sat there looking at each other and those three amazing words came out his mouth. He looked at me and said, "Michala, I love you." Just then my heart melted and I knew that what he had just said and the sincerity of his voice, he was genuine. At that moment, I knew things would change for me and my life. I wanted my parents to approve of him, and get to know the guy that I got to know. Who maybe seemed like a bad boy, but deep down was kind. He showed me his kindness every single day.
      While using much of wasted breath, my parents never gave him a chance, and and made it very hard on me to be with him. After only 6 months being together, I felt to make my parents happy I needed to end things with the man I had, for the first time, fallen in love with. It was one of the hardest things I had to do, and I knew it would break his heart. I drove to his house, and with tears running down my face, I ended things with my first real love. He stood there in his driveway stunned, and as I drove away I couldn't believe what I had just done. It wasn't what I wanted, but I had to live with the decision I had just made. The first few weeks were the hardest. I truly loved this guy. We started to hang out again, but with life we moved on, but kept in touch every once in a while. He is now engaged with a baby on the way, and even though what he had was true, real love, I am so very happy for him and the great things ahead in his life.
      He was my first love, and he was the best I had so far.