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Forgotten Words

Love letters used to mean so much to her. She kept them - because she thought that words were so important. As she dug through the piles and envelopes years later, she couldn't help but feel like she was a bit of an idiot. It sounds harsh, but that's how she felt. In her hands were thousands of words proclaiming love never-ending, and yet she still felt so alone. 

"We fit together pretty well, don't we?" She had thought the same - so much so that she had been willing to move halfway across the country so they could be together. But that fell apart when he said he couldn't promise a relationship when she got out there - how messed up is that?

Another letter from another lover signaled the beginning of the end. "I don't want to get a cat because that means that I am not everything you need." She fumed at that letter - at the time and in retrospect. 

Then she found what she was really looking for. A part of her hoped that she wasn't going to find it, because she knew should be disappointed if she did. So her heart sank a little as she saw a small corner of the gold box. She grabbed the corner, tugging gently to pull it out from underneath the pile of other memories. 

She ran her hand across the top - it was so much more weathered and aged than she remembered. In the corners, the lid was completely worn away - she was going to need to find a new box before she returned everything back to storage. She gently lifted the lid, making sure nothing spilled out. 

Inside were the envelopes she remembered filling and sealing nearly two decades ago. Each envelope held ten letters. Each letter held a hope or dream for her future with her life partner. Each envelope was still sealed.

Finding the box meant that her partner never read the letters - not in the many years they had been together. But her first partner never read them either. 

Tears welled up at the very edge of her eyelid. She had spent so much time writing those letters over the course of many years. They meant something to her, and it broke her heart a little to know that those she chose to spend her life with didn't care enough to even read her thoughts. She knew they each had plenty of opportunity, it was their choice. 

As she picked up one of the envelopes, running her fingers along the dates listed in the top corner, she wondered what to do with them. There were more than 40 letters and a filled notebook. It felt like such a waste...she wanted to find a purpose for them.

Perhaps, she just hasn't found the right person to read them. 

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