The Shirt

When you fall in love with that special someone, it's magical. Shiny, shimmery, wonderful, perfect. Exploring their personality and other things (ahem). It's all roses. As it should be. It's like a brand new shirt. All sparkley and vibrantly colored and it's one that you want to wear every chance you get. It's the best shirt you've ever had. It's the shirt.

Then you get married and the shirt is still perfect and every time you see it you still get butterflies in your stomach, it still makes your heart stop when you see the shirt. It's still shimmery. The shirt is a little more worn, a little more broken in, but still perfect in it's own way. Just exactly perfect.

The years pass and the shirt gets very comfortable. Sometimes you look at it and you just want to wear it every second of the day. Have it as close to you as you can. But then there are days when you can't stand to look at it. You could have it on and one little thread could prick you in your skin just the wrong way and suddenly you want to rip it off and be done with it. Those days are few and far between but that shirt on those days is the last thing you want to see. You ignore it sometimes. You wash that shirt and try to shiny it up, you know, like the in the early days when it was so shiny you could barely stand to look at it, or touch it for fear of messing something up it was so perfect....but try as you might you can't get those shiny days back. They are gone. Not in a bad way, but it becomes increasingly hard to recapture the shimmery shiny days of old. The sequins on it are fading slowly. You find immense comfort in this shirt, it is now home to you. Comfort like nothing else.

Fast forward to now. You love this shirt. It is your world. It's perfectly worn in, and it's the best shirt in the world. You would fall apart without this shirt. It has a few holes in it, but you know, you ignore them, try to patch them up now and again, but on the best days you can't even see those holes. On the worst days, those holes seem like they'll swallow you up and watch you turn into a pile of nothing. Get past those days and you'll be fine. Those days are short and you know you can get through them.

The shirt is always there. It's the one thing you know you can depend on. It's not going anwhere ever. It's a place of comfort and reassurance. Wars were fought over this shirt yet, its' still there. It's worth fighting for. It's to be treasured. I dont' know if the old shiny days can really be captured, I'm still trying to figure that out. I do know it's worth the effort. You know why? That shirt, it's the best thing that's ever happened to you in your whole life. It's the perfect one for you. And in this great big world, that means a lot. It's priceless. No matter how much you paid for it before, after all you've been through with it, it's absolutely priceless now.

I love my shirt.

--Jenn