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Writer's pictureTattoo Magazine

(SPRING 2021) Yellow Boxes | Rowan Wasserman

Updated: Jan 20, 2022


My new year's resolution this year was to fill out this piece of graph paper that I taped to my

wall. I scribbled a key of 6 different colors for each box and their meaning. I wanted to have the

sheet filled out at the end of the year. I would be able to look over the colors and see how good

the year was.

Some days I know immediately what color the box should be. Today I sat in my car and cried

over my grades. Box is blue.

Today I got coffee with my friends and laughed all night long. Box is pink.

Sometimes it’s harder to categorize. Can I really summarize the day's events with one of six

colors? These days the box is filled in yellow. The key says “yellow = meh”.

I have bad days. Days where I know as soon as I wake up “this box is blue.” Bad grades,

irritating parents, general misery, yeah. The box is blue.

I had one of these days yesterday. I woke up late for class and my parents were yelling at me, I

started the day crying. Not good. I sped through the day, anticipating that blue box.

That day didn’t end with a blue box though. My friend texted me, asking if I wanted to call her. I

did, hoping for a better color than blue.

We talked all night, laughing and talking about random things. At the end of it, I was smiling.

With each bout of laughter it was like I could feel the color changing. Soon enough blue turned

green, green turned yellow.

It was crazy to me, how just talking to my friend could make a bad day an okay day, how one

person's bad grammar and dumb jokes could change the trajectory of my entire day. The day

wasn’t pink by any means, but it was yellow. Baby steps matter, I think. Yellow is better than

blue. And that’s what matters.

I wanted to thank her, say “thank you for making the day yellow,” but I didn’t. All I said was

goodnight, and hoped that we would talk again tomorrow.

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