toward me. He takes a seat next to me and reaches for my hand.
“Piper, Jack had been planning your twentieth anniversary for years. He had it all planned out on what he wanted tonight to be and looked forward to it. I didn’t think he would want you to miss out on all his hard work and since I have been hearing about every last detail for years, I called everyone to see what they all thought about helping Jack out one last time and giving you the gift he wanted you to have,” Flynn explains.
Casey and Abby have tears running down their faces when I look to them for confirmation. They each nod and then I look to Bryna.
“When Flynn called me and told me about Dads plan I knew we had to do this, we had to do it for you and for Dad. He would have wanted us to,” Bryna adds
I say nothing as I reach for the second piece of paper that is still folded. The paper feels worn and the creases are weak from being opened and closed many times. As I unfold it, I see Carpe Diem written at the top in large letters, below that my name Piper Allen and the date February 23rd.
It was an old school assignment, I recognize it as the one that I had to do in high school English class my senior year. My teacher, Mrs. Jenkins, was out sick and we had a substitute teacher, Mrs. Foster. She was kind of a hippy-looking woman. She wore a long flowing skirt and a loose-fitting top. The guys in the class were having a blast secretly trying to figure out if she was wearing a bra.
Since Mrs. Jenkins had recently finished our lesson on poetry and had not started the next lesson, Mrs. Foster decided to make it a fun day. She started talking to us about some experiences she had. One of the other students made comments about a bucket list and one thing led to another, and the next thing you know, she was lecturing us about the difference between her experiences and a bucket list.
“A bucket list is filled with all the things you hope you can do one day and honestly probably will not have the chance to do. I live each day as if it is my last and choose to seize every opportunity,” she told us.
Most of the class gave her a look of not caring so she took it to the next step.
“Who here has heard the phrase Carpe Diem?” she asked.
We responded with silence, that is until one of the idiot football jocks shouted, “This is English class, not French class,” throwing several other students alongside him into a fit of laughter.
“It’s Latin, smart-ass. It means ‘seize the day,’ taken from the Roman poet Horace ‘s Odes , and that will become today’s assignment,” she stated.
The laughter was replaced with a sigh of disappointment that quickly spread through everyone in class, everyone but me that is. I was intrigued by the stories she told us and although they were not all filled with travels to distant lands, each one was inspiring in its own way. To think that by looking around your own community, you could create your own adventure.
“Okay here is your assignment. For the next twenty minutes, I want you all to make a list, a Carpe Diem list. It should be a list of things you can do to seize the day and make it special. It can be as simple as taking a walk in the park, to traveling, but each item must all be things that you feel you would be able to reasonably do without a large bank account.”
I loved this assignment. It was one of the best ones I had been given. A road map to making our own adventures rather than waiting for them to happen to us.
Bryna pulls me back from my memories when she touches my shoulder and leans down to read my list. I look around in awe. All of this was Jack. Jack had all this planned for me and my friends, my family carried out his plan.
The pampering, the dinner, and this wonderful, thoughtful gift.
As Bryna finishes reading the list, Flynn grabs my attention when he reaches for the rectangular jewelry box I had forgotten about.
“I think you will find that you will need this,” he says,
“Piper, Jack had been planning your twentieth anniversary for years. He had it all planned out on what he wanted tonight to be and looked forward to it. I didn’t think he would want you to miss out on all his hard work and since I have been hearing about every last detail for years, I called everyone to see what they all thought about helping Jack out one last time and giving you the gift he wanted you to have,” Flynn explains.
Casey and Abby have tears running down their faces when I look to them for confirmation. They each nod and then I look to Bryna.
“When Flynn called me and told me about Dads plan I knew we had to do this, we had to do it for you and for Dad. He would have wanted us to,” Bryna adds
I say nothing as I reach for the second piece of paper that is still folded. The paper feels worn and the creases are weak from being opened and closed many times. As I unfold it, I see Carpe Diem written at the top in large letters, below that my name Piper Allen and the date February 23rd.
It was an old school assignment, I recognize it as the one that I had to do in high school English class my senior year. My teacher, Mrs. Jenkins, was out sick and we had a substitute teacher, Mrs. Foster. She was kind of a hippy-looking woman. She wore a long flowing skirt and a loose-fitting top. The guys in the class were having a blast secretly trying to figure out if she was wearing a bra.
Since Mrs. Jenkins had recently finished our lesson on poetry and had not started the next lesson, Mrs. Foster decided to make it a fun day. She started talking to us about some experiences she had. One of the other students made comments about a bucket list and one thing led to another, and the next thing you know, she was lecturing us about the difference between her experiences and a bucket list.
“A bucket list is filled with all the things you hope you can do one day and honestly probably will not have the chance to do. I live each day as if it is my last and choose to seize every opportunity,” she told us.
Most of the class gave her a look of not caring so she took it to the next step.
“Who here has heard the phrase Carpe Diem?” she asked.
We responded with silence, that is until one of the idiot football jocks shouted, “This is English class, not French class,” throwing several other students alongside him into a fit of laughter.
“It’s Latin, smart-ass. It means ‘seize the day,’ taken from the Roman poet Horace ‘s Odes , and that will become today’s assignment,” she stated.
The laughter was replaced with a sigh of disappointment that quickly spread through everyone in class, everyone but me that is. I was intrigued by the stories she told us and although they were not all filled with travels to distant lands, each one was inspiring in its own way. To think that by looking around your own community, you could create your own adventure.
“Okay here is your assignment. For the next twenty minutes, I want you all to make a list, a Carpe Diem list. It should be a list of things you can do to seize the day and make it special. It can be as simple as taking a walk in the park, to traveling, but each item must all be things that you feel you would be able to reasonably do without a large bank account.”
I loved this assignment. It was one of the best ones I had been given. A road map to making our own adventures rather than waiting for them to happen to us.
Bryna pulls me back from my memories when she touches my shoulder and leans down to read my list. I look around in awe. All of this was Jack. Jack had all this planned for me and my friends, my family carried out his plan.
The pampering, the dinner, and this wonderful, thoughtful gift.
As Bryna finishes reading the list, Flynn grabs my attention when he reaches for the rectangular jewelry box I had forgotten about.
“I think you will find that you will need this,” he says,
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