Theme Week 13: Small to Large, Large to Small

                It was a Hallmark card. Pink and flirty, it was the kind of card you give before things are serious. It firmly planted me in the “more than friends but not quite in love with you yet” category, that grey, undefined area where most relationship mistakes are made. The note he wrote was simple. “I love spending time with you. Happy Valentine’s Day.” But it was more than that. It was the start of it all. Romance really does exist and love isn’t a fairy tale.

                There is a purple birthday card from my friend Meaghan. She’d gotten it for my 20^th, an uneventful year. Six years old, it still has silver glitter on the front. She said we were like sisters, thanks for being such a good friend. I remember that birthday, one of the worst one’s ever. Meaghan and I went out to lunch to 99 with Shane. I was living with my brother on Cottage Street, practically homeless after my parents had decided to convert my bedroom into the dog’s room, something I hadn’t anticipated when I came home from college for the summer. We were innocent then, I remember that. Selfish and close-minded too. Depressed over my relationship with my parents, focused on what I didn’t have, I was blind to what mattered. I got the best birthday card ever and a sister. Sometimes you have to make your own family.  

                In the sixth grade I tried out for cheering and didn’t make the team. The coach was a teacher at my school and she wrote me a note in a blank card adorned with pink lilies encouraging me to keep working at it, I had a lot of potential. She hoped to see me again next year. Signed in her illegible scribble, Mrs. Hatch. The next year, I made the team all because of a few sentences of encouragement that started a chain reaction of dedication and perseverance, all fueled by pride. You can do anything if you set your mind to it.