The Days of Imbeciles/January 14, 2007

Around the time I entered the seventh grade many moons ago, my female friends and I became part of a movement that greatly impacted all of our lives (not really, but I'm fond of the goofy memories, nonetheless). The movement of which I speak was that of letter writing (dramatic background music). Every teenage girl is guilty of it. Writing letters to your best girlfriends and boyfriends complete with little doodles of hearts or stars and nearly always folded up in some funky shape of sorts was a daily ritual throughout my junior high and high school years.

My friends and I also kept notebooks. The notebooks were passed among a group of friends- each one taking a turn to write a letter to the rest of the girls within the circle who had access to The Notebook (more dramatic background music). I have tons of old "friendship" notebooks and boxes full of letters from people that I no longer have contact with. I vowed to never throw them away, because one day, we would all sit around at someone's house-all grown up, of course- and share some good laughs over the old days when we cried over unrequitted love, bad haircuts and failed pop quizzes.

Flash forward to today, when I am 22 years old- two of my best friends are married and have children; I am impatiently waiting to get married and start a new life and I stumbled upon the mini mountain of boxes full of letters and notebooks. I decided to go through them and keep my favorites to place in an album. The majority of the letters are from my three best friends whom are still my best girlfriends today- one of which I've known since we were six years old when we met in the first grade.

As I sorted through the letters and old birthday cards and a few pictures, I laughed and laughed at how many memories they all brought back. They made me remember events that although seemed atrocious at the time they occurred, are hilariously ridiculous now. I literally read for hours, going through years of phases for all of us. The names of guys I forgot even existed back then popped up in some letters, rendering me a useless lump of fat as I rolled around on the floor grabbing at my stomach due to the fits of laughter that memories of them induced.

Most of the letters made me laugh, but quite a few of them made me want to sink through a hole in the Earth, never to be seen again. Was I really that naively airheaded back then? I was a nerd- I remember that, but I never realized I was such a boy-crazy imbecile! My GOD- some of the crap I wrote was just embarrassing. I looked up from one particular letter and literally searched my room for a good space of empty wall to bash my head against. That's how stupid I felt reading my words from one hundred million years (okay, eight or nine) ago.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only imbecile in the bunch. The rest of my friends said some pretty idiotic things as well. I mean, they're so horrifically stupid and embarrassing, I could probably use the letters as blackmail.

Even so, the stupidity of their existence aside, they are going into an album/scrapbook type thingy. When I'm done with it, I will show it to my friends as we sit around someone's house and we will all share some good laughs about the old days.

So, tell me, how many of you out there also have old letters from high school friends and such? Did you too make an album/scrapbook? How did reading about old events make you feel? I'd love for you guys to share your stories. Leave me a comment.

Peace and love to all,
Silly Cake

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