Saturday, July 9, 2011

Parts of a Whole


I found a picture hiding in the back of a picture frame. It was of me and someone I seemed to be very happy having my picture taken with although I can't place the person or location. The only thing I know for sure is that it was taken while I was in college.

My time in college is like a dream to me. I have never since nor before been the same person as I was in college. Like during those years I was a different person entirely. Sometimes I miss that person. Parts of her at least.

She was funny and selfish, addicted and carefree, criminal and loving. But I miss parts of her. The freedom, the potential, was wasted on her. But it was there, in that time, for the taking.

Maybe we all miss parts of ourselves we've outgrown or abruptly thrown away.

Some parts stay with us forever even though we wish they'd leave. Like the smell of burnt popcorn that never completely leaves your microwave.

I wonder, when I'm old and looking back on this era of my life, what parts of me I currently contain that will have been long discarded. Maybe I'll be completely the same. Unchanged. But I don't think so.