By The Way

The late nights and the early mornings
The sunburns and the bug bites
The late night phone calls and long shifts at work
The best friends that practically live at your house
The sweatshirt that still smells like your last boyfriend
The pain in your stomach when you think about long lost friends
The way your dog sticks her tongue out while shes sleeping
The long showers that never get cold because your parents finally bought a tank-less water heater
The new shoes that kind of hurt your feet but you don't want to admit that they aren't perfect
The shattered iphone screens
The 9 comforters and 7 pillows that you can't sleep without
The way your heart drops every time his new girlfriends posts pictures of them on cute dates
The sorrow that you feel for her when he is taking her to all of the places you used to go
The way your mom asks what time you will be home that night
The taste of captain crunch and two percent milk at 3am after fighting with your best friend
The snagged string of your favorite sweater
The long list of things that belong on this list

also I miss you. 

And so it goes

1. I haven't cried in a rather long time.
2. I kissed a boy that I don't have any feelings for.
3. My friends in Boise all graduated. and I am here.
4. The future scares me almost as much as the ocean.
5. I have the most fat I have ever had on my body ever and I don't even mind.
6. I think I know what love is. Really, I do.
7. I went swimming today and I felt like I was 6 years old (in a very good way).
8. Somebody likes my writing.
9. I bought my mom flowers today.
10. My two cactus plants are starting to grow.
11. I wish I never left BYU for the summer
12. I don't fit into my family.
13. My brother now has a pet turtle.
14. I want a key to unlock your eyes... you can keep your heart though.
15. I need to find somebody to go on a walk with me tomorrow.

By any other name

Forest Grove, Oregon.
In case you are wondering Forest Grove is nothing like a Grove.

Have you ever missed every single place on this Earth that you have ever been? Every place except for the place that you are right now?

We deserve mountain tops and deep hidden valleys. We deserve a lake where we can sit with our almost-lover that we are too awkward to define anything with. We can cast a fishing line that will float out to the middle of the deep water along with all of our late school assignments and missed calls from mom. We deserve good food and music that doesn't quite match our current mood but it's the only thing on Spotify and we already used all of our skips for the hour.



Or maybe we don't deserve these things but it's the least this universe could do for leaving us here in this town that somebody called a grove.
We could lock this town up forever if we wanted. We could throw the key into Hells Canyon or grind it up and sprinkle it over rice so the children in Singapore could finally get some protein in their diets.

But we don't because somewhere deep inside our hearts (probably somewhere near the left ventricle) we know that this town built us, or we built it, or maybe we both just sat around while the armies of adults that gave us lunch detention and cut our sandwhiches and gave us 78% on art projects that deserved much higher built this town and us. Maybe. or maybe we are all just foxes and our minds are fleeting and this life is just a practice for us all because the eternities will be perfect.



Forest Grove is not a Grove and nobody wants it to be.