Chirky

I recently got in touch with an old friend of mine, Monica. We used to be very close in high school, but we both got busy with our lives, as many people do, and a couple years after we both left for college (albeit neither of us went very far) we just dropped off each other's radar.

I remember the many nights we spent at each other's houses, the Chili's we used to frequent because the waiter had what we called "runner's legs," the many football games and roadtrips and jumping out of airplanes...Well, that was just on one roadtrip, but it happened three times! We went skydiving! In Lubbock! By ourselves! With no instructor strapped to our backs! Oh, the glee! of the wind in our faces and the thumping of our bodies against the hard ground!

One of the first times we met was in the 5th grade, right after she transferred from private to public school. She and her best friend were in a fight, and so during recess my best friend and I got in a fight just to show them how silly their fight was. Except then my best friend and I really DID get into a fight, because we took our acting THAT SERIOUSLY. So naturally, we decided to hate each other for approximately 3 more days. During that time, I became friends with Monica, and my best friend became friends with her friend. The drama!

It wasn't until we were in high school that Monica and I reconnected, though I don't recall how or why. She was so dear to me, and I loved the time that we spent together. We used to sit on the floor of her ginormous bathroom and laugh at the monstrous curling iron that we called "the steamroller," we made prank calls from her house to other people, we went to speech and debate tournaments together (wherein she would always win the debates, and I would always lose the dramas, hence she is now an attorney and I am now a drama queen), and we were each other's dates to senior prom. And my goodness, she was beautiful!

Sometimes it would make me irritated how beautiful she was, both inside and out. She was a cheerleader, and yet she was sumo-intelligent and friendly. She had a beautiful heart and a beautiful body and a beautiful mind. She was one of those people that seemed to always succeed at whatever she did.

In retrospect, high school seemed so trivial. I think about my high school and often I roll my eyes and groan at myself because of who I was in high school compared to who I could have been. Back then I thought of myself as a very friendly, outgoing person. Now, I think about the people that I pushed away rather than accepted. I wonder what I could change if I could go back and do it over again, or if I would have changed anything at all.

Although my memories of high school seem insignificant compared to other periods of my life, I know that they aren�t. Those were my formative years. Those were the years when much of who I am developed, when I learned about myself and my friends and what I wanted in a friend. It was a period of self-discovery, and persevering through that period helped me get to where I am today.

If I could go back, would I have changed anything? Maybe. But not at the cost of who I am now, or where my life has taken me.

Last night I met Monica for dinner, which was our first time to see each other in several years. She looks the same, but there is a new refinement to her, a new maturity that we only develop as we grow older and cultivate our personality through different life experiences. I learned that she is as beautiful now as she was in high school, except MORE so. Her heart is big and she is humble in so many ways, and I now wish that we had never allowed ourselves to become "too busy" to keep in touch.

Monica, I�m glad that DID get back in touch, and I�m looking forward to creating a new friendship with you!

at Roti Grill! (what? you didn't think i'd bring my camera?!?)
Monica.

This picture, really, does her no justice. Throughout dinner I kept thinking how perfect her eyebrows are. And her cute little nose. And her almost-shaped eyes. She has a very exotic look to her, and my goodness! If I were a man, and I were single, I totally would have counted this as a date and relentlessly asked her out for a second.