Dear E-8 Senior Chief Petty Officer Nash Larson,
That is quite the mouthful, Mr. Larson, but I have to admit that it is also quite impressive. I feel like I should curtsy or call you sir. I absolutely loved getting your letter and I have to admit that I was also relieved that you weren’t completely devastated to get stuck with me but at the risk of sounding like a crystal thumping crazy person I think there might have been something a little more at work here. Do you believe in kismet? Even if I didn’t before meeting you, I would now. What were the odds of my letter going halfway across the world only to find someone else from our tiny little town. I do know Frank Price Church Road (another mouthful lol), there is an elementary school about a mile off the road called Lee Woodard Elementary, I worked there for a little while! I moved to Barnes Elementary about two years ago now and I love what I do. It helps that I live only about 4 miles from there, the commute to Lee wasn’t the best. I don’t know how well you remember the town but I live up on Timberlake Dr. I’m sorry, I don’t know when I started rambling. Thank you so much for the candy and the pictures, the kids LOVED them, they made little murals with the wrappers. I’m going to send you a pictue of it once it’s complete, it’s in the middle of a wall in my classroom surrounded by the other pictures you sent. (Not the one of you, as my adopted soldier I kept that one and sent one so you can put a face to this sloppy handwriting.) From the postage mark on this it looks like it took about two weeks to get here. I feel like I should send something every week so you aren’t waiting six weeks to get something back. I can’t help but hope that you’re safe out there, and there are a few things in the package that I hope you’ll enjoy. I wasn’t sure which one is your favorite and I didn’t want to just stick you with my favorite (the chipotle habanero is so good) so here is a little variety. I added more paper and envelopes too, just in case there weren’t enough last time. I've probably bored you to tears at this point so I'm going to let you go. Please be safe, and I look forward to your next letter, and if you can't find the time then maybe I'll see you driving down main when you get home.
Your adopted kindergarten teacher, Madi