After all of the
wedding festivities of last weekend, our little family was worn out and almost ready to hit the road. Almost. While we were hanging out up north, there was one more stop we needed to fit in.
Back in the Hoosier state, I had the opportunity to meet with some of my best high school friends, some of whom drove almost four hours to come meet me. (So sorry you couldn't make it, Aaron!) Like in the good ol' days, we met up at a restaurant and just, well, hung out (though I guess six years ago I didn't have a husband and a baby at the table with me...). It was a chance to relax, catch up, and of course reminisce.
Though I have a lot of great memories of high school (shining amidst the inevitable awful, awkward ones) with a lot of different friends, most of my later high school memories involve some combination of one group: "the five of us." It seems like every weekend we found ourselves in Aaron or Jamie's house, lounging around, spending (literally) hours deciding what to do that night. I remember MarioKart tournaments, wandering around the video rental store taking ages to decide on a movie, and walking to the high school football games with the smell of leaves and the distant sound of snare drums in the air. I remember browsing at Barnes and Noble, poking around at the mall, and impromptu battles with Jamie's younger brothers' toys. I remember Ritter's frozen custard, Steak 'N Shake cheese fries, and, probably most prominently, Hacienda chips and salsa.
I feel like our time together was seeped in trivial indecision; comfortable, hilarious, time-wasting indecision. No matter what struggles we were facing individually, we all managed to come back together--laughing, lounging, moving forward toward that distant goal of graduation and the ambiguous, proverbial “beyond”.
Though we are all very (VERY) different, I couldn't have asked for a better or more loyal set of friends at that time in my life. As we met together last weekend, we all thought how bizarre it was that
this is the future we used to muse about. Six years ago we asked each other, "Where will we be five, ten years from now?" And here we are, living separate lives, moving slowly forward, going through changes big and small.
As we sat chatting last weekend, the slightly distant feeling that comes from spending years apart slowly melted away, and I felt, to some degree, that we were there, back in 2005, again. I think it was the laughter. If I were to pick one image that would represent us back then, it would be sitting in a basement, doing nothing important, and laughing till we cried.
And that is worth remembering.
3 comments:
Stephanie, you are so eloquent! You described high school hanging out perfectly! and I'm so glad you got to see your good ole amigos. I too can't believe that high school was that long ago. (or that SVU was that long ago, for that matter!) I also love the picture of Cambrie at the top of your blog. She has gorgeous eyes and such a philosophical expression! :)
Thanks, Shaina! (And in case you missed the credit, Brynn Willis took that beautiful picture of Cambrie.) I agree about SVU--I feel that same nostalgic feeling when I think about my freshman and sophomore years of college. I guess that will be another reminiscent post!
Wow! This is.. perfect. You describe our indecision back then so well. When I look back, sometimes I think: "No, but really, what did we do every weekend?" And usually I come up with the same thing: restaurants, driving around, Aaron's or my house, and a perpetual indecision that only 5 different people can create. But however different we were then, and are now, I feel like we came together because we had one important thing in common: a great sense of humor, both collectively and individually. And I feel like that's what connects us now, when states divide us (well, mostly just you) and jobs and situations and time. I had a great time last weekend! It was so great to see Patrick and you, and to meet Cambrie. She's adorable!
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