I almost cried when I opened the box. The writing on the outside was a large, untidy scrawl that I hadn't recognised buy it all came flooding back to me as soon as a lifted the lid. I lived in a cottage in the middle of the woods. I didn't really have anything else. My parents were torn apart by a bear when I was five, and that had been hard on me. Mostly because I realised i would always be alone for my birthday. I knew I could handle it because I was a tough girl, but I thought it would be lonely for an older me to be on my own. So I collected some items that were important for me, wrote happy birthday on the box, and ran to the town where I asked the nice man at the post office to deliver this package on the 26th of November in twenty years time. He was bemused, but I think he found it cute.

Naturally, the state found me and put me into the foster system for a while, but as soon as I turned 18 I returned to my house in the woods to fix it up and just get back to my roots. I had a boyfriend staying with me for a while, but he left and I found myself alone again like I had been when I was five. Now here I was, a twenty five-year-old, sobbing over the generosity of a younger version of myself who gave up her most precious treasures in order to cheer up an adult she didn't even know. I hugged the stuffed bunny I had loved so dearly and sniffed its dusty fur.

I considered the post-office and how they had kept the strange little box from the strange little girl and still remembered the address and the date.

I felt seen.