Title

Drew Bledsoe’s Drive West Part IV 1997: Fictional Letter to Senior Prom Date

By steverodgers

Drew Bledsoe
Silver Spur Hotel
Downtown/Lander, WY
Feb. 1997

Dear Mary,

This is the first letter I think I’ve written in like 5 years. It’s been a long time. I’m currently in Lander,Wyoming and feel like I am at a bit of a crossroads these days. I seem to be evaluating my life and it is taking me down some unexpected roads. I visited Clay Brannon (remember him?) in Pittsburgh and we spent some time chatting about you. He gave me your address and I thought I would drop you a line. Drop you a line… what a dumb thing to write.

At any rate, I’m driving cross country and have had a lot of time to think, and I have been thinking a lot about my past relationships, and actually I’ve been thinking quite a bit about you. I never admitted this before but I think I was in love with you, I think I still am. This isn’t a letter trying to rekindle anything, I am quite in love with my wife, and can’t imagine being with anyone else, but what I mean is I think you opened me up to new worlds, worlds that I still exist in. When we were young, you showed me there is so much more than sports, and I think I’m trying to feel that way again.

I was trying to think why we broke up. It was sometime after prom, remember? It was in my father’s car, in your driveway. I broke up with you because at the time I felt overwhelmed with sports and trying to be your boyfriend, but that wasn’t the reason- I just wasn’t mature enough to handle the emotions that you made me feel and looking back I really regret that decision. I know that life would have happened and we wouldn’t still be together, but it would have been better to let it run its course. I think there is a hole in my heart where that relationship should be. Maybe not a hole, maybe it’s an anchor because it’s pulling me down to the floor. I feel like I’m drowning.

So here I am in Lander, staring out my window at a set of mountains that seem to go on forever, though I know they don’t—that on the other side my wife is waiting for me. We have a day planned, we have a life planned. So why am I thinking of you? We dated for 8 months, you were my senior prom date, I am the face of the New England Patriots, and yet I am frozen in this chair thinking about high school. I’m unraveling.

Anyway, I hope you are well. I hear you are married, and have a kid and maybe  another one on the way. I’m sure this letter is not something you were expecting, or even want, but here it is. If you feel like it, please write me back, I’d love to know what you think about all this – I have a feeling that in time, this strange space I am in will turn into something else, I might even forget I sent this – but I want you to know that right now as the sun is coming down, that I am thinking of you, and I am in love.

Your friend,

Drew