I hold a sticker on the top of my laptop displaying the logo of NASA, not because I aspire to be an astronaut, but because I realized the people and experiences in my life hold a bigger purpose in my life than their names.
Venus: The woman who lived where I worked.
I suspected I was created to become a writer, and having Venus confirm my thesis, I am forever thankful. Her red hair and gold-rimmed glasses framed the woman who gave me the hope that someday I will be great. Venus made the mistake of telling me: when she worked, she wrote, and I often asked her to read things I composed, whether a school paper or a short story. She marked what would make me better, or what I could work on, and told me far too often for it to be true: I was extraordinary, that my words would write me checks one day.
I frequently think of times when she sat me down and advised me not to worry about scrubbing my wooden floors or if my house was messy, for that was the greatest regret in her years. Her greatest accomplishment, however, are her children whom she brought in on a regular, and bragged about. While she’d get lost in her words of praise about her family I sat and admired her stories as they never bored me. Unfortunately, Venus passed away on November 14, 2022. Though she left me here, I value what she taught me and look forward to things we’ll talk about in the future times.
Pluto: The cat I’m very allergic to.
November 12, 2022, 6:28 pm
Text from Nina summers: “do you wanna go somewhere and do something”
Victoria Schlue: “Of course I do”
“Where are we going?”
Nina summers: “ I haven’t figured that out yet”
We found ourselves spread across the hometown that we ache to get out of someday in hopes of doing something noble. But for now, we will go to Swensons and gossip. We go to Nimisilla in the pitch dark, worried a make-believe monster is hunting us. We go to Sheetz to buy chapstick because I always forget mine; we go to Petsmart to buy a cat knowing I’m allergic.
His name was Pluto, with black spots on white fur with the abyss as eyes. I look over-
Victoria Schlue: “Should I buy him”
Nina summers: “you’re allergic?”
Victoria Schlue: “ true, but I already texted my mom I bought a cat.”
I look back at Pluto, my eyes now stinging, my throat itching, and my hands on fire from petting the planet. Knowing I have to be 18 to sign the adoption papers for the feline, I ask Nina Summers if she’s willing to commit a felony to get this cat for me. She said no. We pet the animal knowing it’s destined to sit behind bars for its crimes of being unwanted, and walk to the target next door and regretfully purchase a cat plushie named Kie. I walked away from the pet store grateful for my best friend making sure I don’t get into trouble and upset that Pluto didn’t have the opportunity to get me in trouble that night.
Saturn: the song I learned in the hallway.
I forgot my AirPods on November 17, 2022. Between fourth and fifth period I walked to class annoyed by my witless classmates making noise in a hallway that craved quiet. As a consequence of the walls being too close together and what feels like half of the earth’s population filling the hallway, another student and I were forced to be there, we collided and she dropped her phone. “Saturn” by Stevie Wonder glared off the screen as she picked it up and walked away, in too much of a rush to hear my apologies. That night I went home and played the song that ran through my head all day and heard the lyrics I anxiously waited to be in attendance to. I sank into my bed, jealous I didn’t find the song sooner and pondering what the song meant. I understand now that it is a song not about the future, but about the past. A song referencing nostalgia and remembering what we had, along with the bliss of not knowing what the future holds.
The week of November 12, 2022. I learned I needed to appreciate what I have before it leaves me too soon, or that everything that looks enticing isn’t always good for me. As well as giving thanks to the crowded hallway is needed every once in a while, for this is what makes up my galaxy here on earth.
You are getting good at this writing thing.