Riddle, Riddle Ree...What Do I See?

Memories

You can hear the roar of the crowd, the cheers of the fans as the team executes their plays.  You see the nervous and proud parents on the edge of their seats as they watch their son or daughter.  You can see the joy of the win, the agony of defeat and overall school pride in the gym during any sporting event.  But what do you see when it is over?

Sitting in the gym one late night, I found this ball.  I placed it in the middle of the court and took a picture to capture what I believed to be the moment of how the gym is after the game.  But as I literally laid on the floor of the very quite gym with my eyes focused on the light reflecting off the wooden floor, I began to feel the past.  

I could feel the butterflies of the first day of freshman year when everything that the student once knew was gone, and how they could never imagine how much they would grow in the years to come.  

I could hear the sound of teenage girls awkwardly walking in high heels to their homecoming dance with great anticipations of what the evening held. 

I could hear the sound of a young teenage boy's heart pumping fast as he asked the girl he had been watching across the classroom all year to dance.  

I felt the pain of the day they called the entire school to the gym to announce the untimely death of a fellow classmate, I could feel the wet tears fall to the floor. And I could feel the student's hold onto each other so they wouldn't crumble.

I could feel the love when the odd kid out was made to feel welcome by the kindness of a fellow student.

I saw the joy as a parent placed on the junior student their senior ring symbolizing that the next year would be the year that their child became the leader of the school.

I could see the last day of senior year, the doors open wide as the excitement carried the senior class out of the gym and into the world.  I watched the gym doors hang open as if the spirit filled gym wasn't ready to give up the memories.  The light began to grow dimmer as the doors began to slowly close.  And then there in the last light, the last memory was let go.

Riddle Riddle Ree.. What Do you See?