The Art of Being a Gentleman.

Its a dying art, my friends.

The other day I was picking up some flowers for a friend, at our local flower shop. Ahead of me in line were an elderly couple, both suffering from noticeable physical pain. After they received their flowers, they started out to their car, the man taking his wife's hand and getting the door for her on the way out.
After I had picked up my flowers, I got outside to see the cute old man hobbling around the car after opening the car door for his sweet wife. Even in pain, he walked all the way around the car just to open the door.

& my faith in humanity is restored.

red chucks.

I met her when I was just 13 years old, and we hit it off immediately, we were best friends from the moment we shared a seat in the seventh grade drama class. We'll call her R, for short.

R spent summers in California and weekends in Park City. R had a small section of hair dedicated to a different color each month. R had a gold sparky backpack, and wore red chucks every day, while I wore purple chucks. I always looked for her shoes, and I always found her.

After three years of learning to survive middle school together, we said goodbye as she moved to Caliafornia to live with her Mom, while her Dad moved to Colorado for work.

R had wrote me a couple of times, and we kept up to date on each other's lives. We started out in the same awkward position in a drama class, wearing the same brand of shoes, eating the same terrible school lunches.

 We took separate roads, and after my junior year of high school, I lost all contact with R. I was busy with schools, basketball, friends, boys etc. and I assumed R was just as busy. After all, friends come and go constantly with the seasons of life.

I was reading through my year book, when I remembered her and all the fun we had. I, being a 2014 twenty year old, looked her up on Facebook.

R had passed away, about a year and a half ago, after she had been in a serious car accident. Something so simple as taking a drive with her friends, turned into the last night of her life. 

We were the same person, for three entire years. and then so much had happened. 

This one is for you R. I hope you are as happy and wild and free as the day we met, wearing red chucks and laughing as we complained about the classes we attend. 

pretty things & deep thoughts.

Some days, I wish I was more creative, more out going, more lovely. 

Some days I wish I could fly to a little town in Italy and never return.

Some days I remember why I keep going to school and I why I work so hard to create a future for myself. 

Some days, I'm certain that people are freaking out of their minds. 

Some days, I'm determined to spend every minute watching The Office and drinking sprite. 

& then there are days like today. Where I'm just completely comfortable and happy to continue my routine life. Its okay that I haven't traveled anywhere in two years. It's okay that I'm in the middle of my long school haul. It's okay that I can't plan one year in advance. 

Its okay, because I have pretty things to remind me that life isn't about planning or doing or even having, but more about being. Being happy, being productive, being alive, being a little better everyday. 

And that is okay.  

Even if it is just for today.