FRIENDSHIP BOXES!

Seagull Box girls --
Back row: Abbie Mather, Brianne Whatcott, Lauren Lewis, Elizabeth Haight
Front row: Megan Isham, Syrina Starr, Michele Bell, Debbie Nielson, Paige mather

I was invited (actually I kind of invited myself) to the first annual opening of the Seagull Box. What, you may ask, is a Seagull Box?
I'm so glad you asked.
In my book, A Modest Proposal, I write about 5 best friends from high school who put items that represent themselves and their friendship, into a box with a butterfly on top. This box becomes of symbol of their bond, friendship and commitment to each other. They get together each year and have a reunion where they open up the box and talk about the items and renewing their friendship. Each year the box goes home with one girl, with the idea that this girl will receive extra prayers and luck because she is in possession of the box.
The wacky and awesome employees at Seagull Book and Tape in Taylorsville, Utah, decided they wanted to put a box together. Each of them put in an item that represented them as an individual and then something that represented their friendship. A year later, they celebrated the opening of the box and I got to be there when it happened.
I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun I had with these girls. As they went around the circle and talked about the items they'd put in the box, they relived and recounted experiences and moments through the year that they had shared together, most of them a ten on the "hysterical moments in life" scale. I laughed till my face hurt as they remembered these shared moments together. Some of the things that were in the box were:
a CD of their favorite songs
a photo album
PJ bottoms (they all have matching PJ bottoms)
a napkin with a boy's phone number - long story, but that's what girls do . . . help their friends get the phone number of the cute boy that was in the play they went to see, who just happened to show up at the same restaurant!
paper clips from an apron at work
there was something about the cheese fries at Leatherby's and the water at Leatherby's, which they claim must have something in it because they always get seriously loopy after drinking it (my theory is that just being together makes them this way)
memories of getting kicked out of places (like Olive Garden) because they get so silly (see above comment)
And the list could go on . . .

As I observed the bond these girls share and the amount of fun they had remembering the things that they share as friends, I realized that this "BOX" idea really has something to it. I also realized that maybe other girls might be interested in getting their own "BOX" together with their friends. It doesn't have to be a butterfly box or a seagull box. It could be a sister box, a cousin box, a Young Women box, or just a friendship box, filled with items and memories that will solidify the bond of sisterhood, whether biological or not. It could even contain goals and dreams, almost like a time capsule, to help girls set goals and then check each year to see how they are doing with their progress.

If anyone out there is interested in doing it and I can help, please contact me. I'd love to be involved. I'd even be thrilled to come and be a part of it.