By Annabelle Kennedy, TIWP Student

I wonder what it would be like, to meet my old self.
Little girl with her pigtails and glasses and cheese crumbs on her sleeves. 
What would I say to her? 
You’ve changed a lot, over the years. 
You don’t lose your creativity, I can tell you that much. 
Do you know that you’ll miss the years when your parents were younger
And you would run around the sprinkler,
Go the pool that’s now being renovated and the water drained?
Do you know you’ll still love the taste of lemonade, but you still miss summer,
not this summer, but summer five years ago, when you didn’t care about the spots on your face because you had cousins to play with? 
Did you know that the world isn’t as kind as you thought? That people aren’t as nice? That we can still find little pockets of goodness in the strangest places, like tardigrades making their home in the sun and fish in the trenches, regardless? 
Do you know that you make friends, best friends? 
Do you know that you were hungry for more experiences, more memories, more to look back on and forward to? 
Do you know that you can sit down and eat, devour your memories, savor the taste, and put more into the oven for later? 
Did you know that you are still kind? 
I wonder what it would be like, to meet my old self.