Daffodil

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

I don't know about that, but daffodils are very special to me because they remind me of Eric. Well, actually they remind me of the way he makes me feel: happy.

We met in our freshman dorm. It was January. I enjoyed spending time with him, but I was hoping to meet lots of cute boys in college and not do the "boyfriend" thing. I had done that in high school - three years with one boy. It was time to Sow Some Wild Oats! (ha! we all know I don't have any oats!)

But the thing was, the more time I spent with him, the more time I wanted to spend with him. Try as I might to remain casual, I couldn't fight off my feelings very long. By Valentine's Day, I had fallen in love with him.

We became inseparable. During the times when we were apart (we did have to go to our classes, after all), I would find myself smiling as I thought about seeing him back at the dorm in just a few more minutes. As I walked through campus headed back one day, I saw that the daffodils had sprouted and were lining the walkway. There they were, with their sunny yellow faces in merry groups, looking like pure happiness amidst the end-of-winter weather.

They looked exactly the way I felt inside. Pure Happiness.

So, against campus policy (I know! what a rebel I am, right), I picked one daffodil and hid it inside my coat. When I got back to the dorm, I put it in a cup of water on his desk so he could find it when he got back.

Every year, I gave him the first daffodil I saw. (Did I miss one year? Doesn't matter, it was so long ago now that the story can be "every year!")

I still do. Because thinking about him still makes me feel happy.