I found some old love letters in my drawer the other week when I was packing up my life. I was sifting through the bits of paper I’d accumulated in my two years at 505 S. Busey Ave. I separated mementos from yellowed DIs, syllabi I had kept for no apparent reason, and notebooks filled with bad ideas for plays instead of actual notes. One pile for “keep” and one pile for “garbage.” I sat on my bed, with the orange and blue striped comforter that I didn’t realize were my school colors until after I’d purchased it at K-Mart two years ago — tricked myself into showing school spirit.
I found some old love letters. Perhaps “love notes” would be the better descriptor. Scribbles of emotions and thoughts, perhaps? Nonchalant words of legitimate feelings written on paper to fill the space between the greeting and the closing.
They were time capsules. Archaic tokens to help us re-construct the past. Artifacts to explain a history to a stranger. Proof of a era gone. Evidence. That there was once a time when you gave a shit about me, and I gave a shit about you. Irrefutable.
I read them.
I tossed them into the “keep” pile.
I continued packing.
Mary Zemaitis: I enjoy comedy. And entendres. Sometimes, Triple Entendres.
Comments
Sarah (Sarah) says:
(Posted August 24th, 2008 at 4:19 pm)
Mary, I thought I told you never to talk about my letters to you on your blog. In all seriousness, this blog reminds me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
john (john) says:
(Posted August 25th, 2008 at 5:14 pm)
i threw out all the notes like that from a relationship a few years back. last summer i went looking for them and was really diappointed. a piece of my past, my personal history was gone. its great that you feel like holding on to yours.
JontheCubsFan (JontheCubsFan) says:
(Posted September 1st, 2008 at 1:13 am)
stay forever mary z….
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Mary Zemaitis
I enjoy comedy. And entendres. Sometimes, Triple Entendres.
Alyssa (Alyssa) says:
(Posted August 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 pm)
Yeah.