I believe in soda tabs.
Those shiny aluminum openers that sizzle and pop when you open a soda make me believe in love.
Love is a concept that most of us do not understand – whether that be how to obtain it or how to keep it. Movies and books portray it as grand and intimidating, running through an airport for your one true love.
But in reality, I believe that love comes in little ways, in small gestures and passing smiles.
I used to believe that love would sweep me off my feet and whisk me away to a far-off place. While that may be true in fairy tales, reality swings in the opposite direction. I have found love in the shiny aluminum tabs piled in my room. My soda tab collection fills my handmade vases and takeout containers.
Why? I do not remember when I first began collecting them, nor do I remember why. But I know what it has become. After my father noticed me collecting soda tabs, he started saving his. Aluminum tabs colored silver, black and green, piled up on the kitchen counter, display how I am loved. The collection grows each day, even though I have all but stopped saving my own.
Often, I am consumed by the overwhelming weight of the world and its problems, overwhelmed by the insignificance of my life. But then I see my dad enter my room with a new collection of soda tabs to add to the growing stacks.
I feel better not because the world has changed, but because I have. I am loved as he separates the green tabs from the silver and the pink from the black. The action of his love, which could be anything, changed my perspective. I am not loved because of grand gestures or long soliloquies; I am loved because of the small noticings of my soul.
Love is not important because it is big. Love is important because it is small. The little things, the happy things, make up love. I am loved because of soda tabs.
This I Believe Illinois is NPR Illinois' annual essay program for Illinois high school seniors. An expression of where their minds are as they prepare to enter the adult world. This I Believe was started by radio journalist Edward R. Murrow in 1951 to allow anyone able to distil the guiding principles by which they lived. Special thank you to our sponsors: The Rotary Club of Springfield Sunrise, Illinois Principals Association, Illinois Times, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, University of Illinois Springfield, and Cured Catering.
