When I was younger, I found pieces of quartz in my backyard.
To me, they were the equivalent of diamonds.
Hoarding these little pieces of rock made me feel rich, like a princess with all her jewels.
I kept them in my jewelry box.


Their glamour eventually faded, and these little white rocks only serve as nostalgic reminder of uncomplicated times.
Of the days 50 cents was a fortune, when nobody was ugly, when friends were anybody who smiled at you, when school excited you, when learning was for fun and not just success, when soda was the cool thing to drink, when books sparked your imagination and not your skepticism or analysis of their underlying political and social commentary, when your parents believed in you instead of questioning your motives, when God answered all your prayers, when you ran to your friends house to say hi instead of texting them, when a stranger could smile at you without being creepy, when love in the movies was really what you were going to get, when you had time for your grandparents, when clothes were just another possession and not a marking of who you are on the inside, when you liked your teachers, when the only standard of cool was your parents-- when you were a KID.


Okay, maybe not the second to last part.

but yeah.