The boxes are stacked all around my room, those plastic totes that fit just about anything. You know, books, papers, newspaper clippings, various body parts, what have you. These boxes were put here by my father while I was overseas, and before. I'm going to be moving at the end of January and as a result I decided that I should probably start going through some of these boxes, try and figure out what I'm going to be taking with me and all that.
So the other day, I got a rag and wiped the dust off the first box conveniently labeled "Abigail College Stuff" and lifted the lid. It was like something out of one of those movies. You know the ones, where the kids lift the lid on the old trunk and there's some kind of ancient family treasure inside, or the answer to the mystery, or maybe just body parts. In any case, I was like "Wow, what is all this?" and quickly realized that a good portion of it wasn't actually "Abigail College Stuff," Rather it was a conglomeration of wedding invitations, unopened bank statements that didn't have my name on them, broken pens, old eyeglasses, headbands, crazy hats and pens (no body parts fortunately).
So I begin to sift through all the junk in the box and as I get close to the bottom, I find a little volume entitled "Authors of Tomorrow." My first thought is that it was some kind of tract I got from one of the religious booths at the fair one year. Maybe the Adventists? But no, I quickly realize that it's not. So I'm standing there, looking at it, thinking "Why do I have this?" Then the thought comes into my head "Am I in this?"
I flip open to the Table of Contents and begin to skim. For the record, the Table of Contents of this particular collection is a list of names. In no particular order. Nothing, nothing, and then on page four, there it is. Page 40, Abigail Faust. I flip over to page forty and see an essay entitled "Small Steps."
"Oh I remember this..." What I remembered is that when I was an exchange student from 2007-2008 I applied to several scholarships and as a result had to write some essays. I remembered writing an essay for the Authors of Tomorrow Scholarship through EL Publishers in Canada and I remembered that I didn't win. I'd forgotten they were publishing all the essays in a little book. It was kind of cool, but weird at the same time. At first, I wasn't even sure I should count it as a publishing credit, but then I figured I wrote the essay, I have it in a little book, so why not? It was kind of exciting.
I haven't really read the essay yet. I skimmed it just now but it's a little scary, that whole 'going back to an old piece of writing' thing. When I do get around to reading it, I'm sure it'll be a nice blast from the past.
