Being a penny isn't that hard. You just come into existence and then watch everything unfold around you. Obviously, you can't move, but that's the fun of it. You never really know when the next place is going to come around. This makes a penny's life anything but boring - it's always an adventure. Always something new to experience.
Take me for example, I've been around since 1970 and have been to so many different places, experienced so many different things, that I don't really know how to describe it to you. I've been in so many different back pockets, that one cent that you accidentally dropped on the street, picked up and passed around; I've been to more places than most people go to in their entire lives. I've been in 30 different states and even overseas. But none of that tops when I wasn't moved for a very, very long time.
There was a period of time when I was extremely sedentary. I want to say that I never left the same spot for about 10 years. But I think this was the most fascinating time of my nonexistent life.
One day I was put in a box - I didn't know why, but it's not like I had an opinion - and wasn't opened until probably a few days later. Apparently, I was gifted to a small child, I think I heard that he was 9 at the time. Later that day, he put me in a jar. That jar became my home, never leaving it until he moved out of his childhood home.
In that time, I got to watch a small child grow into an adult. I got to watch this kid go through everything you could possibly imagine. I watched him play with his toys when he was young, his favorite was an airplane that he would fly around the room. I watched him rearrange his room I can't tell you how many times, each one reflecting how he was changing. I watched him get his first guitar, he loved that thing more than anything. I watched him have friends over and have the time of his life. Never had I seen a smile so big. I watched as he would become invested in his books - that look of wonder as he was transported into a new world. I watched him go through mental illness and his first heartbreak. I watched him think about his future and what he wanted to do with his life. There were a lot of options that he researched, musician, pilot, game designer, writer, engineer, etc. Eventually he decided that he wanted to become an engineer so that he could fix real-world problems.
Eventually he started spending less and less time in the house. He had gotten his first car, his first job, was going to school, and spending time on his hobbies and friends. Although I was ecstatic for him and who he was becoming, I couldn't help but mourn the fact that I knew our time would eventually come to an end. I had grown so accustomed to watching him grow that I couldn't think of anything else that I would want to experience.
I had already seen waterfalls, mountains higher than the clouds, been on a zipline, gone skydiving, seen an entirely different culture. But none of those things could even compare to the experience of human life. This kid was the most human and real thing that I had ever experienced in my irrelevant existance. But I knew that I couldn't stay here forever. He would eventually give me away, and I would have to be okay with that when it happens.
The day finally came after he had moved out. He had become a student at UNC Charlotte to become an engineer, beginning to live out his dreams. He cashed me into his own bank system. I was deposited into a facility and then put back into the world to land in someone else's pocket.
I know that I am only a penny, but it taught me something that I will never forget. The life that we are given is a blessing, and if you slow down just to watch for some time, you can watch a whole new world blossom right before your eyes.
So thank you to that little boy with the bright eyes that found me that one day. That was the best experience of my life. It was the first time that I had ever known true joy and it brought meaning to my insignificant little penny life.
A/N This one is a little tricky. I really like the concept and the message, but feel like it's a bit too Toy Story-y. Tell me what you think of it and I'll see if I want to change it in the future. I might, I might not, who knows. I definitely like it how it is now but I always feel like I want to love what I write. I also get a lot of mixed reviews on it soooo, yeah.
- MJ <3
