Places of Joshua

On March 17th, I was sent home from college as the Covid-19 pandemic began to plague our country. I was thrown back into my childhood homes and old patterns of suburban life. I soon fell into the old routine of going back and forth between my divorced parents' houses each day. While repeating the same drive day after day, I was forced to revisit familiar places in my hometown. I was constantly reliving past memories and experiences from my childhood in my head. As a young teen, I experienced the death of a close friend. It was my first real experience with death and was an immediate loss of my innocence. Certain places in my hometown became Joshua’s places to me. Anytime I would see one of these places, I was thrown into a wave of grief yet again. 

While being away at college for a few years, I was able to ignore the places that held so many beautiful memories. Not that I forgot the memories or ever wanted to forget them, I just could simply ignore the pain they caused me to see them frequently. The abrupt change in my daily scenery, caused me to experience the memories over and over again. I wasn’t able to push away my traumas anymore. Shooting myself around my hometown, I found a way to battle the sad feelings and commemorate my memories in a new timeless way.

In Honor of Joshua Paul Kuebler.