Story in a Box

        It was a beautiful summer day as Jessa was standing in her room packing for college. She had just graduated from high school in June and was excited to start college. She walked over to her dresser where she saw her wallet. Her thoughts were brought back to the summer before ninth grade. She went down to Arizona to visit her grandma Shirley for a week. The day before she left, her grandma brought her to a flea market buying the wallet for her. Jessa's eyes started to tear up remembering the last time she saw her grandma. She walked back to her bed and placed the wallet carefully next to the ruler that her 1st grade class made together. She glanced to her nightstand and was glad to see a small wooden head that she had made  in shop class in the 7th grade with her best friend Rory. She thought it was always slightly creepy, but it reminded her of all the fun times she had with her best friend. She placed that in her suitcase as well. Jessa decided to take a break from packing and went into her little brother's room. Jadon was always annoying to her, but she loved him anyways. Like always he was sitting on his bed reading a book about some foreign country. That type of thing always bored her, but she knew her little brother loved it. Jadon looked up excitedly and exclaimed how he had a present for her. Jessa was slightly worried, not sure what to expect from her ten year old brother. He handed her a box haphazardly wrapped in last Sundays comics. She opened it and inside she saw a small wooden canoe and some type of money. Jadon could see that Jessa looked confused and explained that the canoe represented all of their canoe trips and the money was currency from Singapore. Jessa hugged her brother and knew she was going to miss him. As she headed back to her room she saw her mother making a handmade card with an unique stamp. She assumed that the stamp must have been a present from her grandpa, who was always traveling and giving the family gifts. Jessa sighed and decided that she had put off packing long enough. As she went back into her room she found her most prized possession. It was a glass bottle filled with sand. She loved how it had different shades of her favorite color green. She glanced around the room trying to decide what else to take. Jessa picked up the rug that she had since she was five, a mini plate she made in pottery class, and a miniature house from Spain that she got from her Spanish trip her senior year of high school. All of a sudden Jessa heard the door bell ring. She knew Rory was coming over to say goodbye before they both left for college. Rory came skipping into her room squeezing the life out of Jessa. Jessa was so happy to see her best friend that she forgot how sad she was that they weren't going to see each other everyday. Rory had just gotten back from Africa and was excited to tell Jessa all about it. Rory handed Jessa a large sized box and told her to open it up right away. When she looked inside she saw two statues, one she could tell was African and the other was a man playing the drums. Jessa looked up at Rory with a puzzled look on her face. Rory explained how it showed that their friendship was the weirdest thing on the planet. Jessa hugged Rory and thanked her. Rory had to go babysit her twin brothers and promised to stop by tomorrow morning before Jessa left. Jessa was tired and decided to go to bed preparing for the next day. When she woke up, she looked around her room happy yet sad at the same time. Happy to be starting a new chapter in her life, sad to be leaving everything behind. Her mom knocked on the door and sat next to Jessa. She handed her three separate boxes. Jessa opened the first one and it was a chestnut. She opened up the second small box, and inside was a second chestnut. Finally, she opened up the last box, inside was a third chestnut. She asked her mother what was behind the three chestnuts. Her mother explained that each chestnut was a daily reminder of how she should live life. The first chestnut was live. The second chestnut was laugh, and the last chestnut was love. Her mother told her that with these three important things, your life will turn out the way you want. Jessa smiled and hugged her mother ready to start her next journey.