Christine Johnston

When I was five, I wrote my first story.

Don’t get me wrong; Shakespeare and Jane Austen have taught me a lot, but they will never rival the characters of my childhood favorites, spiders and wild things who I considered my friends.

You are the “fun one” in your friend group, who may have some questionable life views but is a safe bet to have by your side for a night out.

You were 6. You had no idea what you were wishing for.

The angsty guitar player who all of your friends made fun of you for having a crush on Junior year.

Ghost stories happen every day, all around us. They’re any story that’s left behind, all the words that we say and footprints we leave. Every conversation we have — these all linger somewhere around us too.

1. Don’t become too engrossed in your own world.

The day before I left for college, I sat in the parking lot of a nearby beach with the windows of my Jeep rolled down, trying to mentally bottle the sound of seagulls and Van Morrison and lobster traps being dragged along coral-covered docks.

This is about being a little bit reckless, and a little bit ridiculous, and a little bit stupid.

Whenever the light from your window catches my eye, I remember our efforts to create a clothesline mail system so that we could keep talking after our parents demanded we go to our respective homes.

Chances are you’ve shared a room at some point in your life, making you a well-practiced college roommate.

Realize that they had cereal for breakfast and has no photographic evidence of it, as it should be. Realize that they’re only showing you what they want you to see.

You’re learning, and I don’t expect you to ever know everything or even want to know everything, because some parts of us are better left undiscovered, or discovered by different people.

You would stay standing there until I had turned three corners and was ordering my medium roast with soy milk and hazelnut syrup.