The Pen is Mightier

January 21, 2017

1/21/17

Dear Howard,

I apologize for sending two letters within the space of two days. However, I fear you would have felt cheated to only have received that one word response from me. I do believe that the joke was worth it, though. I only wish I could have seen your face when you opened it.

Like you, I just finished my first week back to school. It was something of an endeavor to get back into the mindset of studying rather than sleeping. As Claire put it so eloquently the other day, "This sucks." Today being Saturday, I took full advantage of the empty morning and did what any sane person would. I slept. I like the fact that we get new professors and new classes this semester. I swear if I took one more Calculus 1 class with Professor Harris, my brain would explode. It's a miracle I passed that class, both because of the professor and the subject. Let's just say that I love letters and the alphabet, but when they tried to take over math as well, all hell broke loose.

I do have a bit of a dilemma I'm facing this semester, which I feel comfortable sharing with you, especially since we live hundreds of miles away, and our only real mutual friend is James (whom I will consider taking out to coffee, per your suggestion). I put up a front, a lot of the time, of being fine with my family's situation, but as the holidays have passed, I just haven't been able to do so as well, so if you don't mind, I'm going to explain to you something about my family. Nobody else knows about this, so keep it on the down low, if at all possible.

My parents are about as close to being divorced as they can be without actually having signed any papers. I'm used to it and all the drama that springs from it, but then there's the holidays. Every single year, they get especially argumentative about how to spend the holidays, how many presents to buy, how disappointed they are with each other and with us kids...the list goes on.

Well, this last year's holidays definitely surpassed every other year in the respect of how much bickering went on, and now that I, the youngest in the family, have moved out of the house for good and into college, I'm afraid there's no glue to hold them together. My fear was proved right over the holidays, as my parents announced they would be getting the long-awaited divorce. I'm not sure when it's going to happen officially, or what all is going on, but I do know my mom is packing up to leave California to live around her family over on the East Coast. My dad, meanwhile, is also packing up to take a job offer in Illinois, and I'm going to be down here in Cali. Thankfully both my mom and dad have agreed to help split my tuition at the school until I should graduate, but the idea that my entire family is changing, and I have to stay put is driving me crazy. I have no idea where I'll be spending the summer, or spring break, for that matter. I'm sure things will work out in the end, but for now, I just feel so helpless.

I suppose I'll probably have to tell someone something about it soon. Probably James. But I don't want to seem like I'm complaining to whoever I tell, because I know for a fact some other people in this very school have things a lot harder off than I do.

I just realized as I wrote that, that I was in fact, complaining to you, and that you might even have it worse off than I do. I sincerely hope that you feel comfortable sharing with me anything you're going through as well. After all, I just poured out one of my life's biggest secrets to you, so I would definitely consider us besties now. BFF's for sure.

I'm glad that you appreciated my writing, and that you found it engaging. I discovered the picture you drew, and at once took it and put it into a cherished place in my dorm. It was so beautiful. It was as if everything I had ever needed to see in the world was summed up in that one drawing. Thank you for making my life complete.

Sincerely,

Beth Cassidy