The New Picture Has Configured

The New Picture Has Configured

By third year Audrey Hamm

For my very first piece for this paper, I wrote about my friends from home, wondering in writing: what would change and what would stay the same? I daydreamed about our memories, recalling them often through old pictures from our shared photo album. I collected our personalities into a swirling kaleidoscope of colors. Instead of talking to them every morning before school, I’d imagine how they’d laugh about a joke I just made to my friends here (that didn’t quite get it). I left the memories frozen, hoping to revisit them together when everything wasn’t so new, when leaving each other didn’t feel so raw.

Now, I’ve grown fond of the memories we have made even from far away. Texting a million miles a minute in our group chat about the latest gossip, and spending an hour on the phone just talking about everything, recapping life’s moments. I’ve watched them all take on challenges and grow in new ways. It is cliché to write in high school endings of sorts, yearbook signatures and senior letters,  things like “I’m so excited to see what you accomplish.” Though I thought that was a little inflated back then, I was proved so wrong; their accomplishments are nothing short of captivating, and I am nothing short of proud.

I can still look at old pictures, but some of them are not so old. Shannon makes grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. Everyone shared their outfits and selected eras for the Taylor Swift concert. Sofia running down grassy hills in a flower crown. And Jess’s dog jumped in to get in the family photo for our annual Secret Santa party.

look at some of these memories

how they have stayed so still

I would never have appreciated them

the way I had until

we were miles and miles apart 

grieving time not spent together like a skill

but I don’t toast to your ghosts

for too long anymore

because summer and holidays arrive

and my house is still an open door

for potlucks and deep talks and fun & games

all the better, all the more

the colors swirl together, and friends

I believe we have a new picture

the truth about us

I know from past’s scripture

spring is here and now you and I

are bonded through six letters,

inside jokes, cherry slushies,

and love for a certain type of weather

that brings out an exuberant kind of laughter

among those meant to cherish each other forever 

I know people come and go

(I’ve said this before)

and not everything is the same 

(and I’ll say it again)

but I loved you then

and I love you to this day