When I was 15 and moved out here to foreign Colorado from native California I didn't know anyone. My parents and I packed up and moved here when the choices given by my Dad's job were either a) move to Seattle or b) move to Denver. They chose Denver and here we are. We moved out here in the summer so it was very difficult to make any friends and at that point I didn't want to make any friends because I hated it here. I just wanted to go back to my home in California. Little did I know the friends I would make out here. I don't have a huge group of friends and I never have. On my first day of school I had everything planned out. I was going to come to my classes, eat my sack lunch at a table far away from everyone, go to the rest of my classes, and ride the bus home. This would be my plan for my junior and senior year. Forget friends, forget "getting involved", forget connections.
Everything was going according to plan until lunchtime. I checked out all of the cliques and even though I saw a small group of kids that might be cool I dismissed it and stuck to my plan. I slowly found a seat of my own. When I started to open my sack lunch, two girls came over to my table.
"Would you like to sit with us?" "Ummm, no thanks." "Are you sure? We have friends that would like to meet you."
Not being sure if this was a joke or not, I closed up my sack lunch and went with the girls to their table. Then I met J, DJ, Sarah, Linsei, etc.
Now it's much later. After high school and after college for some. DJ was visiting from DC so we got to hang for awhile. We went to the park to walk around and then a local restaurant to talk over a smoothie and a sundae. I didn't realize how much I missed my friend. Someone who doesn't see you everyday and can see how much you've grown and vice versa.
This is the guy that got on my last nerve in highschool. This is the guy that went and bought a red rose with his best friend to give to me so I would feel better about hating Valentine's Day. This is the guy that witnessed my first look at snow and thought I was crazy for thinking how great it was. (He was right.) This is the guy that worked at Little Caesar's with me and accidentally burnt my arm in the pizza oven. This is the guy that made me smile and gave me a boost of confidence when he looked at the photographs on my camera and said, "You've got an eye, that's talent I don't have".
Today I got to hang out with my friend.