The last couple of weeks, I've been feeling really close to some far-away friends. I don't exactly know when it happened, but the connection between them and I just inexplicably strengthened.
One of them, I met in high school, and as she recently stated, 'how did I screw up so much in high school and still manage to pick you as a friend' (close enough). I didn't have an answer when she asked and still don't today.
In high school I was always picking up these people that were "damaged" somehow, I always thought I could 'fix it'. Ninety percent of the time it ended badly for me or my family. Cars were vandalized., I was threatened physically again and again, it was like an S.E. Hinton novel minus the Dallas Winston character to come along and save the day at the rumble in the vacant lot.
Lace was the other 10%. She was beautiful, and funny and so smart., and she could sing. Neither one of us can recall exactly how we met., there was a purposefully set fire in a trashcan at a police station, greasy pizza by the slice at Poor Pauls, lace gloves, Madonna, boxes and boxes of blonde hair dye, Bruce Springsteen, an angry skin head, a very cool human behavior class, numerous trips to Kings Dominon, a "band" of wanna-be heavy metal guys, the military guy with the cool car, the homecoming dance, and of course, the horse complete with cowboys.
Twenty years later and her name on my cell phone can still make me feel like I'm 17 and I better quickly come up with a lie to tell my mom, because I'm gonna need it. Of course it's no longer true. We both grew up and became responsible (mostly) productive (attempting to be) adults, with mortgages and vet bills and ..stuff. But for that 15 seconds when I see her name on my cell phone, all that goes away. It's magic. I'd like to tell her how much it means to find her and know her again after all these years, but she knows. That's magic too.
I remember shortly after she graduated from undergrad with a degree in sociology me asking her what she was going to "do with it" her immediate response was "frame it". The next thing she said was "I don't know why I ever went to college, all I ever wanted to be was a rock star."
Flash-forward 20 years and you'll find her finishing her PhD. and, if you're lucky enough you'll also find her in her city somewhere singing in her band. There are few people in my life that have had as many severe ups and downs as this girl (ups and downs I chose not to chronicle, [that's her story to tell]), but she pulled it off in bigger and better fashion and with much more style than I've ever had. Maybe it was her brains, her "good upbringing" her moral compass, that pulled her through, I can't answer that., and despite all things rational and logical I'm going with my gut.
I think it was Magic.
One of them, I met in high school, and as she recently stated, 'how did I screw up so much in high school and still manage to pick you as a friend' (close enough). I didn't have an answer when she asked and still don't today.
In high school I was always picking up these people that were "damaged" somehow, I always thought I could 'fix it'. Ninety percent of the time it ended badly for me or my family. Cars were vandalized., I was threatened physically again and again, it was like an S.E. Hinton novel minus the Dallas Winston character to come along and save the day at the rumble in the vacant lot.
Lace was the other 10%. She was beautiful, and funny and so smart., and she could sing. Neither one of us can recall exactly how we met., there was a purposefully set fire in a trashcan at a police station, greasy pizza by the slice at Poor Pauls, lace gloves, Madonna, boxes and boxes of blonde hair dye, Bruce Springsteen, an angry skin head, a very cool human behavior class, numerous trips to Kings Dominon, a "band" of wanna-be heavy metal guys, the military guy with the cool car, the homecoming dance, and of course, the horse complete with cowboys.
Twenty years later and her name on my cell phone can still make me feel like I'm 17 and I better quickly come up with a lie to tell my mom, because I'm gonna need it. Of course it's no longer true. We both grew up and became responsible (mostly) productive (attempting to be) adults, with mortgages and vet bills and ..stuff. But for that 15 seconds when I see her name on my cell phone, all that goes away. It's magic. I'd like to tell her how much it means to find her and know her again after all these years, but she knows. That's magic too.
I remember shortly after she graduated from undergrad with a degree in sociology me asking her what she was going to "do with it" her immediate response was "frame it". The next thing she said was "I don't know why I ever went to college, all I ever wanted to be was a rock star."
Flash-forward 20 years and you'll find her finishing her PhD. and, if you're lucky enough you'll also find her in her city somewhere singing in her band. There are few people in my life that have had as many severe ups and downs as this girl (ups and downs I chose not to chronicle, [that's her story to tell]), but she pulled it off in bigger and better fashion and with much more style than I've ever had. Maybe it was her brains, her "good upbringing" her moral compass, that pulled her through, I can't answer that., and despite all things rational and logical I'm going with my gut.
I think it was Magic.
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