Koala

Herself speaks.

My parents sent me a koala in the mail. In the card that came with the koala, they wrote that the koala had its heart set on traveling to my corner of the desert. And I thought back to a family trip we took some forty-plus years ago, when I was still a grade schooler: we were going to visit my grandparents who lived a plane ride away, and I explained to my parents that I needed to bring my (somewhat larger) stuffed koala because "koala has his heart set on going." Bless their hearts, they let me bring that koala on the plane.

I miss being a child, sometimes.

And I am glad to have a new koala.