Here, take this cookie jar and don’t open it till your 25th birthday.
But I do.
and I think it’ll be okay if I just open it and sniff.
and I do.
And maybe a week or a month later I’ll think of it again and wonder if a bite will really hurt.

I bite a little bit off. It isn’t that much.
But repeat that a few more times and I’ve finished a cookie.
And I’m used to it now, coming to my jar every sporadic moment or so and chomping off a little bit.

My birthday’s still so far away.
And when the day comes, I open the lid and stare blankly at crumbs.

I try to tell myself that it’s okay, but I’ve already forgotten what opening the lid and seeing the jar full of cookies felt like.
I forgot this on my birthday, when I might have needed and appreciated it the most, the day I’ve been told to wait for and couldn’t.