From a battered shoe box

It sits there on the bookshelf in my apartment.  It's really unremarkable looking- just a shoe box, blue with dots, for some size 9 and a half tennis shoes.  Not my size.  The box looks somewhat battered, with bulging edges, and tears in the lid.  In fact, the lid barely stays on anymore.  People who come to the apartment probably don't even notice the box, or think twice about it.  If they do, it's probably only to wonder why we keep a battered shoe box on a shelf.

It's actually filled with treasures, memories of days gone by.  I pull the box down from the shelf, holding gently on to the battered lid to keep it in place.  I set the box down on my lap, and pull the lid away.  The first thing I see is a Mickey Mouse hat from Disneyland.  Then there's just a bunch of papers.  Anyone who opened the box would probably think the inside is as unremarkable as the outside.  It's not.

For those who are unaware, Zack and I went to high school together, and that's where we met. We don't remember the first time we met, although we both have the same first distinct memory of each other-- a band rehearsal in 10th grade during which I shared with him the horrible score I got on a physics test (yuck, I hate physics).  I was probably just 14 years old when we first met (yeah, I was young for my grade level).  In the months and years that followed, we became friends, good friends, best friends, and then more than just friends, although it is really unclear to all parties involved when each of those transitions actually took place.  Consequently, we have had some great memories together, some dating back several years.

Zack bought me the Mickey Mouse hat when we were in Disneyland on band tour one year. That unremarkable stack of papers in my box is not so unremarkable to me.  There are newspaper clippings from when Zack wrote for and edited the school newspaper in high school. There are some of my favorite letters that he has written to me.  There's some wrapping paper from a gift he gave me, and an envelope that he decorated before mailing it.  There are some photographs from a school dance we went to, and a ribbon from a rose he sent me.  Just papers to anyone else, these sweet things bring tears to my eyes when I pull them out.  

Hidden under the Mickey Mouse hat and the stack of papers, there are a series of random objects that have significance to me.  A bracelet from a Crimson Nights (event and the U of U) that Zack and I went to, souvenirs that he brought back for me from a Washington DC trip he took, and the necklace that I wore to junior prom when we went together.  It would take me forever to list everything in my box, so I'll just highlight a few of the fun ones here.  I just snapped a couple pictures so here's a little tour of my "stalker box".

This is from the same Disneyland trip as the hat.  We ate this blue cotton candy while we watched the fireworks.  Zack joked that we should keep the paper thingy that the cotton candy came on as a souvenir.  We laughed, but I actually kept it.  We probably would have never even remembered that moment without this cone of paper.

Sometimes fast food restaurants have those things you can peel off of the drink or fries container, and you might win something... know what I'm talking about?  Well, we went out to eat once during high school and the place we went had some of those.  We won some "Exciting Cruise Offer[s]", which were basically useless since we weren't going on a cruise any time soon. Once again, we joked that we should hold onto them so that we could use them when we did go on a cruise someday, we would have them.  

When I was in band in high school, people used to write messages all over my band folder. When I graduated high school, I threw the folder away, but I cut out this tiny piece written in Zack's oh-so-small writing. "Zack loves ShaNae"

These are the corsages Zack got me for school dances.  We went to Prom both junior and senior years.  The one on the left is from junior year.  They are dried out and fragile now, but still so pretty.

This is from a round of mini golf Zack and I played with my sister and her friend several years ago now. Zack kept score, so I kept the card.  Also, I won (insert smug face here). 

 

Another thing that many people don't know about me is that I used to collect "lucky bagel bag holder closer thingys" (lbbhcts).  And by used to, I mean that I just barely threw my collection (my very extensive collection) out right before I moved out here because it seemed like such a silly thing to pack with such limited space.  It was the flute section's mascot in high school.  I taped them to people's yearbooks at the end of the year.  I was serious about these things. Anyway, so when I took my first AP test, my sweet husband (not my husband then) bought a bag of skittles (my favorite candy) and taped 3 lbbhcts on it.  One said "good", another said "luck" and here's a picture of the third.  Totally cute, eh?

So there's a little tour through my box of treasures.  Next time you see an unremarkable shoe box sitting on my shelf, you'll know that it's actually a goofy and touching tour through the development of the relationship that I now get to enjoy for an eternity.  I love my husband, and I am so glad that he saw something in that awkward teenager who never wore matching socks and collected pieces of plastic off of bagel bags.