We kept communicating via email as time went by. We didn’t do it often, but it was nice to talk about pretty much anything that pertained to us individually.
One day he sent me some pictures I’ve sent him that I had forgotten about.
There was one of me wearing my uniform at school, standing in front of one of the classroom’s door. I had a big smile on my face with my arms crossed.
It was taken with my camera and the photos were developed at a local drugstore at a walking distance from my home and school.
Every time I had a roll to develop, I would walk by myself to the store and drop them off. As soon as they were ready, I would write a letter to Johann and send them out.
The second one was a passport photo. I was wearing a white blazer, which was actually my father’s jacket in another time. I found it on my grandparent’s house and fell in love with it. I would roll up the sleeves and thought I looked really fashionable.
One thing I really forgot about was that, not only did I write notes on the back of the photos, but also would always sign them, ‘Love always, Emma’.
The writing on one of these photos conveyed a feeling that I didn’t know where our lives would take us or what would happen to our friendship, but that I would always remember him as having a special place on my heart.
Yes, that’s who I was back then, a hopeless romantic, writing all these things as if they were taken out of a romantic novel.
I wrote these words with no expectations for anything in the future, not knowing how much they would impact our lives and, even less, if I would get to read them again.
They were certainly those of a teenager who had no idea that these thoughts would transcend time and would still be felt the same way today as they were more than 20 plus years later.
Time may pass, but feelings don’t.