Wish

Wish

Inspired by Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern and my life

Dear Dylan,

Happy tenth birthday!! I really like being your friend and youre so smart. I hope you like my present! (I think you will)

- Alex

I remember that party- Alex taught me chess after we watched a movie, and I've loved playing chess ever since. I wish he hadn't moved schools...

Hi Dylan, 

Thanks for the birthday present! The book is really fun like you said it would be. I like Annabeth the most, she's so smart. Also I really like that all the characters are twelve like I am! Maybe I should dress up as Annabeth for Halloween next time- it's still seven months away though. Well, I suppose getting started earlier is better.  

From, Sylvie

I never got to see what Sylvie wore for the next Halloween- she went away after that school year, although she did come back a few years later. 

Dylan,

I hope you had a great time at this year's Youth Retreat, and i hope you could reconnect with God! I'm glad I have a book lover like you I can talk to. We can play chess more at school haha. Speaking of school, ninth grade is just two weeks away! Can you believe it? 

From, Katie

I remember this church youth retreat- I have a few more letters from that time. Katie and I never did get to finish that particular game of chess- we just started over back at school.

Dylan,

Happy fifteenth birthday! thanks for being a good Christian friend to me. You're annoying at times but then, what would friends be for?

- Sylvie

Thanks for being a good Christian friend to me too, Sylvie. I hope we'll always be like that.

My (small) stack of handwritten notes to me is one of my most precious things- these tangible memories are what bring me back to the moment of the note and let me relive the past, as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. 

I'm sure you all have handwritten letters and notes from friends and family- save them. Save every single one of the notes. 

Your texts too- don't erase your texts with your friends. Someday, you'll be reading those text messages again, and you'll feel warm at the memory of you, and your friends. 

Make many tangible memories, you won't regret it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This idea of saving every single memento and note and text message('tangible memory') comes from the book Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern, originally titled Where Rainbows End. Rosie saves nearly every single note and email and text she's sent or received in her life, and she literally relives her life reading all the tangible memories she's collected throughout her life.