I don't want to forget so I fill my camera roll with pictures and videos so if someone asked “do you remember this” I can look back and say I do
And I don't want to forget so I keep little trinkets or notes I have gotten in a box in the corner of my room to be able to look back at all the stories that come along with each thing stored
And I don't want to forget so I write down notes about people I care about in my phone so I can always look back to see what their favorite animal or food was
And I don't want to forget that there was someone who once loved me enough to carefully fold me a yellow paper crown which now sits along the other trinkets in my memory box, or to give me a stuffed pigeon as a souvenir because they knew it was my favorite animal as it now gets to live among my other plushies, or to carve me a ring which i once wore around my neck and now rests beside the other carvings and poems in the cardboard box that was used to hold a valentines day gift which also still resides there
And I don't want to forget driving with my best friend for 8 hours to be able to visit their place for the first time where I was able to meet their pet snails and go to a boardgame cafe with them
And I don't want to forget even the things most people do as I drive home with tear stained cheeks after being broken up with or a friend helping to calm me down after crying because I thought I would never be able to stop messing up
Because I don't want to forget even though I am scared to ask if the group can wait so I can take a picture or feel like I’m being materialistic when I say receiving gifts is my love language when it’s just because I don't want to forget that a friend thought about me on a trip and brought me back a plush shark keychain when he really didn't have to but now I can wear it on my keys and always have a remember how grateful I am to have friends that care about me enough that I fight so hard not to forget
The feeling of being safe in their hands enough to take naps in their company, as they taught me how to play magic the gathering around two tables pushed together in the third floor room, as they now invite me to group fires or hikes
And I don't want to forget so I have stories to talk and laugh about with the people I shared them with and that they are the same people who care about me as much as I do for them
I don't want to forget for each memory is a part of me, a building block which creates the shape of the person I get look at in the mirror
Because I don't want to forget that I wouldn't have known that radlers are my favorite drink if the boy who broke my heart didn't introduce them or that it was the same boy who brought me my love of skateboarding
And I don't want to forget that I found my favorite shoes because a friend took me impromptu thrift shopping or that my favorite jacket has bottle caps from a barbeque I got invited to from the same group of friends
And I don't want to forget so I hang polaroids around my room of the people I love and care for, both new ones and old, as pictures of people and memories fill the top edges of my walls, a constant reminder of the people in my life and the experiences I have been able to have
I don't want to forget