Writing-- Unexpected Findings

Just a little piece about finding something unexpected. I wrote this today at a writing workshop I attend. I'd LOVE if you'd let me know what you think (be honest!). Thanks for reading it!

Unexpected Findings

I curl my fingers around the rusted doorknob. The door is cracked and the off-white paint is peeling in long strips. I can see the swirly knots in the wood through the thin paint. As I open it, the door creaks like an old man getting up in the morning. Inside I find something I never thought I would ever see again. It is the old sweater my grandma had knitted for me as a starting school present. I wore it every day for 297 days (yes, I counted) until my mother ordered me to take it off. It had became so ratty that when I put it on I could never find the arm holes, as there were too many other holes which I mistakenly thought were the ones meant for my arms. I was definitely a weird kid. Other kids had stuffed animals and special ‘blankies’. I had my sweater. On the first day of kindergarten, while everyone else squeezed their mother’s fingers so hard they nearly broke them, I put on my sweater and flopped down on the couch with a book. I had loved that sweater. But what was it doing here?

I was sure my mom had thrown it away. I remember kicking and screaming and finally collapsing in hopelessness as my mother tossed it out. So how did it get here, behind the old door in the apartment building my dad runs? The responsible, adult part of me lectures me on the importance of letting go, and tells me that I should close the door and move on, but this voice was quickly defeated by the sentimental part of me. I stumble through the doorway, leaping the distance in only a few steps. I snatched the sweater up from the dusty floor and pressed it against my chest. I took a deep breath, letting the familiar scent of the sweater remind me of those happy days my 5-year-old self had enjoyed so long ago. I laugh as tears began to stream down my face. What a silly thing to be get so emotional over! I knew nobody would ever understand my attachment to this sweater. But it was a part of me, a part of me I certainly didn’t expect to find behind the old wrecked door in Dad’s apartments.

“Unexpected findings are the best.” I whisper to myself.