“Dude my life’s over. My parents took my phone and car away for the week.”

Is it though? Is your life truly over without that one thing? Now put yourself in your house. Except your home is being engulfed by flames by the second. Now see the things you can’t live without. 

At first thought–I can admit–I would probably think like a typical 17-year-old girl. I can't live without my phone, I can’t live without my wardrobe, I can't live without my makeup, etc. Thinking of all those things, what are they? They are tangible, replaceable things…Replacable… Sometimes we get so caught up in life we don't truly think about the things that hold meaning, and value, or imagine what life would be like if we lost them… One thing I can't live without. I truly wouldn't be able to live without a chest that my late grandfather built me. He made one for each of his grandkids. So my two brothers, my two cousins, and of course, me. It is just a simple, reddish-brown wooden trunk. Honestly, just a simply storage place, but not just any storage place. The purpose of this chest is to store all of the important things I plan to keep for the entirety of my life. From baby clothes to toys that hold memories, to the hand-engraved name my grandpa wrote on the wood. 

All of these things are valuable, memorable, and irreplaceable. So in the heat of the moment, I know that if I grabbed this chest from my basement, regardless of if I knew exactly what was in it; everything would be okay. I would have a few core things that would remind me of the once amazing life, childhood, things, and experiences that I once had before it had all vanished away in the blink of an eye.