Just Little Things: A Celebration of Life's Simple Pleasures

By Rebecca Miles These are little things that make me happy, inspired by a blog of the same name by Nancy Vu.

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I was pen pals with my grandma for some time; I kept every letter she sent me.

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The best food spots only take cash!

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I love to take photobooth pictures whenever a place has one. It feels to me like a timeless way to preserve a memory. I have my favorites taped to my wall. I always think about my favorite scene in the movie, Buffalo '66: WE ARE JUST SPANNING TIME TOGETHER!

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Once in a while, when the clock strikes 12:06 pm, I still hear the sound of the bell blasting in my 6th-grade ELA class, signalling that it was lunch period.

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I listen to music online by way of streaming, but I also have a record player, which consists of my personal vinyls and a collection I inherited from my uncle. I got an iPod when I was maybe three or four years old, and I would listen to Britney Spears and Justin Bieber on it! Before Bluetooth came out in cars, I would listen to the Lemondae Mouth soundtrack on CD, and my dad sang along with me, too.

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Under my bed, I have many boxes full of pictures, postcards, cutouts, and magazine clippings. I have this one metal lunchbox with Cinderella on it that my mom got for me years ago. There are lots of old tchotchkes in there. It is like a time capsule.

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Like most Jewish girls from New York, I grew up going to camp every summer. I was always too scared to go to sleepaway camp, so I started at a small day camp at the Y for most of elementary school. Then, from 2016 to 2019, I attended a camp on a beautiful piece of land out on Long Island. It was truly a wonderful place full of endless activities and fun. It took me some time, but I made solid friends. I don’t talk to any of those girls anymore; I wonder what has changed in their lives since I last saw them in 2021…

I remember our counselors always made sure we put on SPF. I can still picture the inside of my cabin bunk and the sensation of pressing down on the spray bottle of sunscreen. I would always buy the Banana Boat brand from CVS. I hated how oily and sticky my arms were before jumping in the pool.

I recently found out that the reason I was forced (at the beginning) to always attend camp was that my dad’s parents could never afford to send him to one. He wanted me to experience something he couldn’t. I am forever grateful for that.

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My mom has always loved tea, and I never understood why, until now. It is so refreshing to have it iced in the summer. Hot, it is soothing when I get sick. She makes me jasmine green. I love to add honey.