wedding dress

about a year after we married i listed my dress on craigslist so that i could free up some closet space. a really sweet girl emailed her interest, and we corresponded a little to work out payment and shipment details so that i could ship the dress out to her in the midwest. she told me that she had tried on the sample in the bridal shop, but brand new it cost too much, so this was perfect. i myself had bought it secondhand off craigslist so i was really excited to continue the chain. shortly before we finalized the terms, i got sentimental and suddenly couldn't bear the thought of selling my wedding dress. to get it out of my system, i flipped through our wedding album, i played with the bustle, i rustled the skirt. still, i found myself emailing the sweet girl in missouri and telling her that i couldn't sell it. she was incredibly gracious, and the dress continued to hang in our apartment.

several years and a couple of moves later, it hangs in my old room at my parents' house. i actually regret not selling it when i had the chance, because now it's just hanging there, gathering dust. someone told me about how she had saved a lot of nice suits and dressy coats in her closet because she couldn't bear donating them even though she now had no use for them. they ended up all being destroyed by moths, and it was a very vivid lesson to her that someone else could have really benefited from and enjoyed wearing all those nice clothes if only she hadn't held so closely her possessions. in any event, i meant to donate it to a charity system that would resell it for cancer research, but a lot of procrastination in going to the post office now means that my dress is too outdated to donate; the cut-off is five years old, totally fair. i've tried posting it on ebay and another clothing resale site and there's been some small interest, but nothing to reel in yet. my mom kept her wedding dress and i loved revisiting it with her, but i'd really like my own dress to get at least one more visit to the rodeo.