In life, people accumulate things that they simply cannot get rid of. These things can be unshakeable memories, people they cant forget, or items that they just dont have the will to toss in the trashcan.

People come in and out of your life. They come in for a reason, to teach you some moral, and then they leave. At least, they’re supposed to. Not all people follow this pattern, though. My friend, Katie Coppage, is one of these people. I have known her since preschool, and we’ve been friends ever since. She taught me how to stand up for myself, and make myself be heard. I came to preschool shy and unsure, and came out of sixth grade confident and loud. She changed me without even talking to me. In fourth grade, we had a huge fight and didn’t talk until the middle of sixth grade. We became friends again, but I had changed. I knew that she couldn’t push me around like she used to, and I made that clear. We are friends to this day, and I believe that Katie is in my life to stay. As Glinda says in “For Good” from Wicked, she has left a handprint on my heart, and I will always carry the lessons I’ve learned from her with me.

        In life, eventually objects become obsolete and must either be repaired or thrown away. However, as a race, humans are pack rats and keep things that have memories even if they no longer use them. I have a green and white swing set out in my backyard. It’s bent in places from a certain young girl standing where she shouldn’t. All that was once white and gleaming is now tan and dull. The two-person swing broke in a thunderstorm three years ago and now hangs in two pieces. My legs grew too long for the four-person swing many years ago, the regular swings have been wrapped around the top bar many times to make it easier to mow under them, and the slide is grimy and gross. My swing set has been through a lot with me, and I just can’t get rid of it. The backyard would look empty without it, because it’s been there so long. The memories that I associate with it are already fading, and it feels like the only thing that keeps them there, even vaguely, is that swing set. It doesn’t take much to make an object something so important that you carry it with you for ever, but sometimes the things that stick around are ones you’d never expect, like a childhood swing set.

        Everybody has things they can’t, or don’t want, to get rid of, things they carry with them. They can’t choose what they carry. It can be abstract or tangible, a memory or an object. The load makes us sad or happy. No matter what the object is, and no matter what form it comes in, it’s always with us. For good.