Memories Over Material

Currently, I'm sitting on my back deck with my best friend, Kelsie, eating some black berry cobbler that my amazing sister, Megan, made. We're listening to Kenny Chesney and telling each other stories while waiting to see my mom's alien spaceship. Now, my mom has absolutely no clue what blogging is, I've tried to explain it and she doesn't get it. She just puts it with all the other technological things that I do, and she doesn't. She told me today, like she has many times before that material things don't matter. You can't take it with you when you die, so why do you need it? Memories are much more important, they can actually last a lifetime. I've met so many people that are materialistic. I try not to be, and it bothers me when people are. I feel bad for them, there's so much more to life than stuff. There's just something humbling about not having the best of everything or not having all the in-style clothes.

Lately, all I've wanted was pictures of my best friend. We have three together. One was taken on purpose by him at state, one is of him hugging me in the wrestling room taken from behind us, and the other is one where we were taken off guard at a wrestling tournament. I wish we had more together. I have the tie-dye shirt I made him, that he wrote I'm a Jew on and wore to every wrestling tournament. That's serves as a pillow case for my favorite pillow that I sleep with every night. I have a bracelet that Thomas gave me of Steeler's name and birthdate/death date. I have a dog tag that Wendy gave me; it's my security blanket and makes me feel safe. I don't leave my house without it. The only other thing I have is memories. Sure I have a few text messages, but none of them make very much sense because we always just called each other. What keeps me going is driving around, hearing a song, seeing a movie, or being able to do anything and have a memory pop up in my head. Almost all of them are wonderful and make me smile. That was the thing about Steeler, I have less than a handful of bad memories. He didn't allow for bad times, and when the circumstances were less than ideal, he could make the situation a whole lot better.

So memories make things better. I have more than a dozen songs that remind me of Steeler, sad ones and just old ones we used to listen to on repeat. When I hear them, I smile. I miss him more and more everyday. It blows my mind how some people have just moved on. I guess we all cope differently. I sometimes wish we could all be like Steeler, in the way that he never knew a stranger. He wasn't afraid to be himself and you weren't afraid to be yourself around him. I think the world would be a lot friendlier.

I guess that's all I have to say tonight. Don't let the material things take over your life. Live off of memories and let them carry you when times get rough. Take the time to be friendly with a stranger, you might make their day a little brighter.