Just in Case

I've had this suitcase ever since I was very young. I used to be a Care Bears fanatic back in the day. (My entire plushie collection is still being stored somewhere up in the rafters of my attic as I type this. My parents have been very....caring.) Anyways, I love the saying on this suitcase: "Setting sail for grandma's". I would always take this with me when my parents went on mini-vacations, and I stayed behind with my grandparents.

One time, I even used it to run away. I filled it to the brim with books and other things to read, my partner in crime, and threatened to leave after a really bad fight with my parents. I was like, eight. I never left. I just sat out on a bench outside reading books from the suitcase until it got too dark to see. Nowadays, the case remains under my bed until I go somewhere. But when I do, I break it out and spend an impossibly long amount of time choosing what I want to bring with me -- books, magazines, journals to write in, a print out draft of my novel. I may not be running away, but it's always nice to have something to read.