This is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

Author's Note: This was converted from a stream of consciousness exercise we did on family. I related it back to the Thanksgiving break we just had when I spent a lot of time together with my family, and now I'm realizing just how priceless that time was. It is almost impossible during this time of the year to get even my immediate family all together, and though I don't usually see it right away those times when we have nothing to do and no where to go are the most memorable moments. This piece specifically talks about someone I'm really close to in my family  that I only get to see every so often.

We sit together,

For once,

With no where to go,

No clock ticking down our time together.

She laughs and I do too,

She talks and I listen soaking it all in.

Her time here is limited.

I dream about my future as she explains her's,

Willing it to be just as glorious and fun.

She inspires my mind to think,

She inspires me to stretch myself.

Yet when the meal is over and we leave the table,

I shrink back to my reality.

My reality that I'm not her.

I feel like I know so much more because of her,

Like college will be a dream,

And everything in the future will be even more fun.

But it's not,

Because I once dreamed,

About my life like she would describe it,

But now I'm here and she's there

And I'm still lost in that dream.

"Live like today is the first day of the rest of your life,"

I remember that day in the airport,
When I really understood that line.

I've never been fond of saying goodbye,
That day came too quickly.

My heart raced in attempt to run away,

To leave and return to reality,

Expect what I wanted was no longer reality.

Family --

That was all I wanted.

I was loosing something irreplaceable.

She never cried so neither did I,

She was excited so I was too,

She left so I tried to follow,

But this time I couldn't.

I had no clear cut path to walk on,

So I  had to make my own.

My own way without her.

Now when she returns I have a new fond love,

That makes our time together,

A thousand times more priceless than before.

No money or currency,

No gold or silver,

Nothing on this earth,

Could possibly account for times we share together.