Back to 2008

 It feels like I’m back to 2008.

Oh God, 2008.

It’s wild how a single text, a single call, a single voice

can pull you right back to a year you thought you’d buried.

One message and suddenly, I’m there again.

Brown blouse. Black skirt. That ridiculous shoe.

That childish version of me.

And it’s like the air shifts.

I can almost smell that day.

The laughter, the nerves, the girl I was 

sitting somewhere between innocence and becoming.

All because of one message.

One unexpected name lighting up my phone.

My heart skipped.

My breath caught.

And I thought, why now? Why you?

It’s crazy, really,

How memory works 

how time folds,

and suddenly you’re not who you are,

You’re who you were.

And all you can do is exhale.

Why now?