How can a building that looms so large in my memory actually be so small?

How can a building –  always  teeming with life, possibility, hope for the future,

controlled bedlam, and organized chaos that is a school, now be so empty and silent?

How can a parking lot that was always swarming with cars, buses, parents and students

be so flat and hushed and desolate?

How can a place where I laughed and cried; played basketball and ran track; had secret crushes on boys I was too shy to

speak to; played red rover; hung by my knees from monkey bars; made lasting friendships; started my period;  occasionally studied; got caught chewing gum many times – had to

write 5,000 sentences in one night (thank you Mr. Atchison); and developed a lifetime love of reading; now appear to recollect

none of this?

How can a place that contains such meaningful memories  be so totally bereft of life?

Indelible memories, forever etched in my mind, will carry me back when longing fills my soul.

I drove by there today as I always do when I’m here and wondered when my heart will no longer

feel empty, as I look at a place so reticent to reveal all that it once contained.