My grandma has made quilts for all of her grandkids and given them as gifts on special occasions within the past ten years. My sister got one for her tenth birthday, my cousin Kiersten got hers for Christmas one year, her brother Zach for his high school graduation, and their brother Nat got one as a wedding gift. I was the only grandchild that hadn’t gotten one yet. My grandma was getting old and she wasn’t quilting as much, so I wasn’t sure if I would be lucky enough to receive a special Grandma Quilt. However, this past summer, my fears disappeared at my graduation party. My mom made a big deal of opening my gift from Grandma, making all my friends and family crowd around and watch as I tore off the wrapping paper and opened the big cardboard box. As soon as I saw the pink fleece, I knew exactly what it was.
As I pulled the quilt out of the box, it seemed to just keep coming and coming. It was so big that eight people had to hold onto the edges so we could see all of the different squares. I had to simply stand there for a minute and take it all in. So many memories and emotions were evoked when I first saw it. The quilt was made up of about twenty different squares sewed together. Five of the squares were made by my friends, containing quotes or fun memories. The remaining squares were various t-shirts from high school. There was a shirt from Spanish club, math team, multiple homecomings, some from volleyball, prom, powder puff, and a few miscellaneous ones. It was backed with pink fleece, the same color as my baby blanket that I took everywhere when I was little, and still have to this day. This quilt is kind of like a summary of my high school career, making it extremely sentimental to me.
I have played volleyball since fifth grade, making it a huge part of my life throughout junior high and high school. There are six squares of just volleyball t-shirts and seeing all of them together reminds me of all the ups and downs of my volleyball years. There is a shirt from my eighth grade state tournament in Springfield, bringing me back to running around the hotel with my friends, playing together as a team, going undefeated, and winning state. My team went 36-0 that year, the only time that’s ever happened in Rockford Lutheran’s history. It was such an empowering feeling being able to defeat so many teams and knowing that my coach was proud of each and every one of us. That was a great season and it makes me so grateful that I could experience the feeling of being a part of a team and working together to achieve an incredible goal. The shirts from my junior and senior year remind me of a time of many mixed emotions. Being on varsity was much more of a commitment than junior varsity, and a lot more pressure. I had good times with my friends, but the stress and drama within the team was very frustrating. The girls were always fighting about something, arguing about why they’re not getting set as much as someone else, or complaining about playing time. It was always tense and I think that’s why our team didn’t make it past regionals. Those memories aren’t all bad; I definitely had many good times with my teammates like singing on the bus or making up crazy cheers during practice. Throughout all of my years playing volleyball, being a part of a team, working together to achieve a goal, having healthy competition, and even bad competition, has taught me the value of true friendship: always being there for someone no matter what the circumstances are. If one of my friends had a great hit or got a hard dig, I would congratulate them, but if they made a mistake and were getting frustrated, I made sure to encourage them. It always made me feel so much better when my teammates did that for me, so I wanted to make them feel the same way.
Going to all of the dances at school also contributed to much of my quilt. I went to all of the Homecomings and Proms, each one a new experience. My freshman year homecoming shirt is included, reminding me of the unforgettably awkward time I had. I went with Tanner, a boy that I barely knew, but when he asked me I was so excited. We didn’t talk much during dinner or the dance, then never spoke to each other again until junior year when he started dating my best friend Kailee. It never bothered me that they were dating and it didn’t affect our friendship at all. Kailee knew that if it made me mad, I would tell her and she wouldn’t date him. Tanner and I got over the weirdness and would laugh about it all the time, remembering how we were both awkward freshmen. My mom also chose to put my prom shirt from senior year in my quilt. This brings back better memories. I went with my boyfriend at the time, and it was a great time. A lot of the kids left towards the beginning of the dance because they got in trouble for dirty dancing, so once they left it was way more fun. There was more room to dance and we didn’t have to be annoyed by the “popular” kids trying to push their way to the middle of the dance floor. Everyone in our group got along, and it was a perfect “last hoorah” of our senior year. When I look back, I’m happy that I decided to go to all the dances, even if some were awkward or lame, because it created many memories that I can laugh about now.
There are also a few shirts from the various clubs I was in throughout high school. My Spanish Club shirt reminds me of how the club would get together and make breakfast burritos before school and go on field trips to Pilsen, a Spanish neighborhood in Chicago. I went to Pilsen twice, each time going to the little shops and bakeries around town. My friends and I would always buy little cakes and churros to eat on the bus on the way back. Looking at that shirt always makes me smile because taking six years of Spanish with most of the same people creates many lasting friendships. Another shirt that has the same effect is my sophomore year math team shirt. I was on the math team every year and I loved it. The actual math part wasn’t always fun, but the fun times I had with my friends at practices and meets made up for it. We would always play the card game “spoons” between events and someone would end up getting hurt every time because it was so competitive and intense. When I look back on these shirts, they tell me that it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, speaking Spanish or even doing math problems, as long as I’m with my friends, I always end up having a good time.
To me, this quilt is a metaphor for friendship. Everything about it relates to my friends in one way or another. That’s why it meant so much that my closest friends each contributed a square to my quilt. My sister made one with a quote from the Lion King, talking about the journey we have gone through together. Melissa, whom I’ve known since kindergarten, wrote some memories from when we were little like playing house and school, to more recent ones like jumping on her trampoline all the time during the summer. Another friend, Elena, one of my best friends since sixth grade who goes to Iowa State now, wrote multiple quotes from Winnie the Pooh, all about friendship. For example, one says, “Promise me you’ll never forget me because if I thought you would, I’d never leave.” I get choked up every time I read this because it makes me think of all the good times we spent together. We went on multiple camping trips with her family, always went to Sonic after school together, and would have deep conversations in her hot tub. Now that we are eight hours apart, we are experiencing a different stage of friendship, which is distance. I know that no matter how far away we are, we’ll still be friends. Finally, Kailee made two squares, one with a few of our many memories together like going on a cruise in the Caribbean and taking midnight walks around her neighborhood just talking about life. The other has a quote from the Disney movie Fox and the Hound about being best friends. Every time I look at these, they bring me back to all the good times I’ve spent with my friends. From playing on the playground with Melissa in kindergarten to my trip to San Diego with Kailee this past spring break. This has made me realize how truly blessed I am to have such great friends who care about me like they do.
The fact that my grandma used the same fabric in my quilt as the baby blanket she gave me when I was born really brought the whole thing together and made it that much more sentimental to me. That blanket means so much to me because I brought it everywhere and slept with it all the time when I was little. It comforted me when I was sad and was always there for me when no one else was. Sometimes I sleep with it now when I feel sad or alone because it can comfort me whenever I need it. The pink fleece on my quilt will always remind me of my baby blanket and how it made me feel, so hopefully my quilt can provide that same warmth in the future.
Whenever I look at my special Grandma Quilt, it reminds me of all the important things in my life: family, friends, education, sports, and many more. There is a story for each square, telling pretty much the whole story of my high school career. It is like a kaleidoscope of my life, making it a part of me. I am going to look back at my quilt when I get older and reminisce on all of the memories, good and bad, that it pulls from my memory. This quilt shows what has made me who I am today and I can’t think of anything else that could incorporate so many memories and emotions into one object.