When I was in junior high school I had a huge crush on this one boy that I had seen from afar. I was in 7th grade at the time and he was in 9th. I didn’t even know his last name, only his first. My friends and I would follow him around on my behalf. I would try to be places I knew he would be just to catch a glimpse. I am quite certain he didn’t know I was alive.
For that reason I was shocked when I found a love letter from him in my locker one day. The letter said all the things I wanted it to say. I don’t remember the exact wording but the jest was that he felt the same way about me that I did about him. I walked on cloud nine for days and even gathered enough guts to approach him. He was friendly enough but it was pretty obvious he was clueless about what I was talking about. My so-called best friends stood back and watched in a fit of giggles as I humiliated myself.
To make a long story short, he never wrote me the letters. He didn’t really know me at all. My so-called friends had written the letters and made up a last name to go with them. They led me to believe the letters were from him and that he really liked me too. Needless to say I lost two girlfriends out of that fiasco. I was so completely embarrassed, hurt, and my heart filled with complete hatred for my supposed friends. Ironically the guy took my side in the situation and I won his friendship out of the deal, but only his friendship, not his heart.
I haven’t really gotten any love letters since. In this day in age of emails and text messages love letters have become almost obsolete. Who sits down today and takes pen to paper to pour out their hearts these days? I was starting to feel a little down thinking I had little to contribute to the subject of love letters.
I woke up this morning, put on my glasses, and glanced at my cell phone noticing almost instantly that I had a text message from my husband. “Going to bed, I love you and miss you all too. I made it to Virginia.” Instantly I felt all warm and cozy and explicitly happy inside. There was my love letter! If you count love text messages, I get those all the time. I have never thought about them as being “love letters” but that is exactly what they are. No I can’t douse it in perfume, tie it up in a satin bow, and keep it in a special place but the meaning is the same. He loves me, he misses me, and he took the time to send me the message and tell me so! It is doubtful that years from now someone will find it and feel their heart warm from all the love and tenderness that exudes from that message. Text messages don’t last that long. They are more expedient and quickly replaced by more text messages. Phones are upgraded and those messages are lost forever.
The best part of the whole thing is that even though my husband is far away, he still got his message across. He wrote me a love letter. He thought of me and that is all that matters until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.
