She tends to carry a lot with her during the day. Most thing tangible, but others, not so much so. Let us start with the tangible. She carries her phone, her backpack, books, and her rings. Other then that, she carries humor, stress, and lost friendships. She goes back and forth throughout the day. She carries around what is required and sometimes a bit more. With her highs and lows. Some things bring her joy, while others bring her sorrow.

First, her phone. Her phone is attached at her hip, like a newborn to her mother. She checks it throughout the day, and sometimes through the night. She gets text messages, instagram notifications, and snapchats. She checks her homework for the next day and makes plans for the weekend. Then, there is her backpack. She carries this around most days of the week. Lugging the heavy weight on her back. She drags it around for seven hours, then throws it down when she gets home. The reason for that bag being so heavy is because of all the books inside. Books for Social Studies, Math, English, Spanish, Science, and so many more. When she comes home, her shoulder kills her from writing in the books and carrying them all day. On the weekends, her backpack sits on the floor in her room. She will open it if she feels like doing her homework. When she does open it, she takes out the books she needs, and does as much homework as she can. She opens her phone to check the page number and amount of words for each assignment. When she is ready, she takes a pen, pencil, or computer out and begins. She finishes in time, hopefully, then tries to just relax.

Another thing that she carries is her rings. She has five. Some have more meaning than others, and some have yet to gain their meaning. First, her tiara ring. It was given to her by her parents one Christmas. She may or may not have lost the ring twice and had to buy replacements. The next is her class ring. It says her name and her graduating year. She got that one a bit early. After that, there is a communion ring. She got this when she was seven-years-old and has never taken it off. It is her favorite. It is almost connected to her. More inseparable then her phone. The last two rings combine to make one. This ring has a very special meaning to her. She is Irish. Shocked right, O’Brien. She was really close to her grandmother. She had always wanted to go to Ireland with her grandma and visit the country and her cousins. But, her grandma passed before they could go. Just recently, she went to Ireland and visited family in the country. She also bought herself a ring. This was her claddagh ring. This would be a reminder of her grandmother. Although she has not had this ring as long as the last, she plans on wearing it for as long as she can.    

Besides all of the thing she carries that she can hold, she also has things that no one can necessarily see. She has humor. She loves to laugh, loves to hear jokes, and doesn’t mind a good roast once in a while. Her father is non-stop cracking jokes at home. Some of them are pretty good, whereas others are straight dad jokes. This normally helps her to relieve some stress. That’s another thing, stress. Stress can come in from any different directions and in many different ways. Most of her stress comes from school. Having paper deadlines is the worst. She will spend most of the time procrastinating rather then doing the assignment. She starts to worry and get annoyed. That’s when the dad jokes come in. She still manages to get it done somehow.

One thing she never really likes to talk about is her lost friendship. These girls were sisters. They met in preschool when they were only three. They were best friends for twelve years. They would do everything together. Inseparable. They went through everything together. They would sing together, and play piano and guitar together. Her friend decided that she had better thing to do then spend time with her best friend. Her best friend left her, broken hearted. It was the worst break up she  had to go through. They walk past each other in the halls still. Not making eye contact. Not even a glance, or a little smile. Her friend left her in the worst circumstances and she will never forget that or be able to forgive that.

The physical things that she carries are nowhere near the weight of the emotional ones. Those are with her forever. She can’t put them down or replace them no matter how bad she wants to.