What is it with these challenges?

Honestly! But I love them because they make me scrap things I would rather not do, or ones that I need to do but just haven't gotten around to doing. This one was an English assignment to write about school. There were several prompts and a free-write where you could write about just about anything school related. I went with the title "These are the days (I want to remember)" from the 10,000 Maniacs song. I went with that 1. because we listened to it all the time in high school and 2. because those really are the days I want to remember. The days when we were 4 young giddy school girls without a care in the world til life slapped us in the face.

"These are the days I want to remember"


In the picture are my 3 best friends since middle school, and the tallest one is Amelia. I have pictures of she and I when we were 4 and 5 years old. Anyway, just after my sophmore year, which was her junior year, she was tragically killed in a car/train accident. So when I look back on these pictures it TRULY IS the days and memories that I want to remember.

The journaling reads, "These are the days I want to remember... The days before June 26, 1995. The days when we were four giddy school girls who talked on the phone too much, used 3-way calling to call boys when we probably shouldn't have. The days when we went skinny-dipping in the pool while "pet-sitting" or the late nights singing every lyric and quoting every line from Grease. Those are the days I want to remember. Along with the mission trips, youth group fun, pep rallys, football games, 4-wheelin' in the mud, and riding horses. Those are the days I refuse to forget. The ones before we knew true pain, sadness, heartache, and loss. The ones where we lived, not knowing one of us would soon lose her life. Those were the days before we knew tragedy and those are the memories I cling to. We were young, and carefree. And we had no clue how it would all end. Those days are the memories I'll always cherish, because now that's all I've got to hold on to."