Love + Friendship

Today, I just want to take a moment to remember a good friend.  It's funny how life changes in the blink of an eye.  One moment, you have everything figured out.  The next, you're getting an earth-shattering, life-changing phone call...

In the midst of a difficult time, which led me to build walls and shut out the rest of the world, one person broke through. I should say, rather, that he charged through like a bull in a china shop, because honestly, he did nothing without fervor...

For years, we were inseparable. Even as we went to colleges on opposite coasts, the birth of this new thing called the internet (well, the coming-of-age of its widespread use, especially at college campuses) kept us in constant contact. For the first semester, we also stayed glued through telephone lines...but that was quickly shut down when the bills came in!

Both of us being very passionate, outspoken people, there was never a dull moment, that's for sure! I remember the first time he rang my doorbell, during a break from boarding school. Dressed in VERY torn up jeans, bike shorts, a t-shirt held up only by the neck, and sandals that were duck-taped to his feet...I was fairly certain that my mother was about to have a heart attack. Bless her heart...

His family traveled extensively, and I received airmail every summer from all over the world. Some of the most beautiful imagery I've ever seen written came in a letter from Japan, just after he had hiked a mountain near Kamikochi.

On September 20, 1998, I lost my best friend.  It was shattering.  My scholarship program made me attend mandatory grief counseling, at which point I was informed that I had experienced 22 losses in 5 years - including both the flooding & burning down of my dorm (separate incidences---hence our class song "Fire and Rain"), several deaths of friends, car accidents, and my parents' divorce....not necessarily in that order.  This last one was really the lynchpin.

But you know, I wouldn't trade the pain of losing best friend for the three years we had together.  If I tried to share only the best memories, I'd bore you to tears with an extremely long post.  So, I want to leave you with this :  cherish today.  Play with your kids.  Tell your loved ones that you love them...repeatedly.  And if you've lost someone, take a moment to relive a happy memory.  People are only gone if they're forgotten.