A Letter (kind-of-sort-of-not-really)

It has been years since I have written a letter, and I guess it will be up to the reader to decide whether this streak continues. At least for me, I would not consider this a letter, as the person whom I want to read this will likely never see it.

Yet if you ever read this, please read it carefully. This is hard, and forces me to open a mothball-filled chest I would rather remain closed. I have tried to keep myself away from this chest, yet from time to time, my thoughts stray to it, and inevitably, I end up with my fingers prying open its lid. It has taken me a very long time before I finally managed to leave it alone. My thoughts have been consumed with many other things since then, and the hinges of this chest have started to rust. Yet for you, I am willing to open this chest once again, perhaps one last time. The creak of the hinges as the chest opens sounds very bittersweet.

If I were ever to properly write this letter, put it in a envelope, and have it delivered to you, it would go something like this:

It has been a long time. A very, very, very long time. So many things have changed since then. I think and hope I am mostly unchanged. Even I, with my fear of growing up, cannot wholly resist the flow of time. If we were to meet again, would you recognize me?

Even if you can't, please know that I have tried. I have tried to stay myself, and I have paid the price. Yet I know you have tried even harder, and have paid an even dearer price. The flow of time is relentless, and grows even harder to resist as more years go by. It has already swept me away, and the times we passed together are starting to fade.

Starting to fade, yet I don't think I will ever forget. You are alive in my mind, as a person, not a memory a year old. I remember when we first met, and when we last met. You had changed hardly any between those two times, unlike me. It has been so long since I have lost The Game. And I have given up Neopets as new interests have come forward.

So many of the people we know have warped beyond recognition. There is only you and I, and an unnamed other, who sit to watch them grow up. It is a sad pastime, and for me, one of the biggest prices to pay for trying to remain unchanged.

If we ever meet again, we will have a lot to talk about. But until then, I, and the unnamed other, are still your friends. We still remember. So please, if you ever read this, remember too.

Yours in clanmate-ship,

~A/C/R~