here’s to the past

to the days long gone and barely remembered

where the world is basking in infinite sunlight

and everything that was wrong

is somehow twisted in your mind to feel right

 

here’s to the naivety of childhood

where strangers are friends

friends are imaginary

and imaginary is real

 

here’s to the paper airplanes and the magic wands made of sticks

to the bath towel capes and the big wheel races

to dinosaur chicken nuggets and chocolate milk

and to falling asleep in your mother’s arms

 

here’s to growing up and colliding with the world head-on

to holding your tongue in a room full of noisy mouths and deaf ears

to the screams

to the whispers

to the holes in the walls

and to the letters stained with poison tears

 

here’s to the breaking up

and breaking down

and to the redemption of re-colliding

and repairing

 

here’s to feeling infinite

to blaring music with the windows down on an empty highway

to the times when youth feels tangible

and the world silences to make way for your noise

 

here’s to the sleepless nights

that either make your life or tear it apart

to knowing

the most meaningful conversations always happen after 2am

and to the realization that you are not defined by attributes

but by the memories you possess

 

here’s to the songs that transport you through time with a single note

to the smells that are intensely reminiscent of the forty-third day of first grade

to the nostalgic pain too excruciating to endure

and to the soft smiles of content remembrance

 

here’s to the good ol’ days

and to wishing there was a way to know 

you’re in them before you’ve actually left

 

here’s to the present

to feeling a memory being made in the moment in which it’s being lived

and to already missing someone while they’re still sitting next to you

 

here’s to the most frightening way to zone out

watching the seconds tick by on the clock

and being unable to fight the realization that time is not counting up

but rather going down 

 

here’s to the moments which define your life

to the tears

and the fears

and the years

that you live through

 

here’s to the firsts

and the lasts

to a past of tragic endings

and a future of new beginnings

 

here’s to falling in love

with them

with that

with life

with you

to the wishes upon stars

to the stolen glances

and the taken chances

and to finding a new definition of “everything”

 

here’s to the people that feel more like home than the house you grew up in

to never being loved by as many people as you are able to love

to the feeling of security

and to everything that sneaks through the back door

while you’re busy guarding the front

 

here’s to the courage it takes to let go

and to the courage it takes to hold on

 

here’s to what you lose

to what you gain

to what you lose when you gain

and to what you gain when you lose

 

here’s to the second after

and what it holds

to the weight of unprocessed information

and to feelings on the rise

 

here’s to the long nights and string lights

hands and life plans and never-ending fights

 

here’s to the songs that drown the sounds of breaking down

and the anthems of those beginning to build back up

 

here’s to now

to cherishing every moment while it lasts

before it falls victim to the minds of those lucky enough to experience it

yet human enough to forget

 

here’s to the future

to the dreams you dream

and the plans you scheme

to the life you lead

and the stories you leave

 

here’s to those whose greatest fear is oblivion

to the breath taken seconds after your name is spoken for the last time

to those who influence from beyond the grave

and those lost to the enormity of time

 

here’s to the cups of coffee that are yet to be drunk

and the people that are too

to never knowing which moment is your last

and to the acceptance that life flies by all too fast

 

here’s to the plans we make at 1am

when the world belongs solely to those who remain awake

to the desire for a spontaneous road trip

and to the desperate need to escape

and here’s also to those convincing enough to make you want to stay

 

here’s to the places you’ll live

the kids you’ll have

the jobs you’ll loathe

and love that lasts

 

here’s to everyone you thought you needed

more than the very organs in your own body

before learning the painful lesson of removal

and knowing that only one kidney is needed to survive

 

here’s to those who kept going when they were lost

and those lost because they kept going

 

here’s to me

to you

to him

to her

to then

to now

to why

to how

 

here’s to the people you will never meet again

and the longing for a place you will never return

 

here’s to the good ol’ days

and the awareness of their presence in the present

before they inevitably embody the cruel longing their name implies

 

because boy,

does time know how to fly

 

here’s 

to 

the

good

old

days