On Friendship
College Spring, May 2013
The falling into every evolution in tandem because we get to navigate life in synchronicity. Lingering longer at the door, because we know that life - and love and loss and joy and grief and victory and fail and pleasant surprises and rude awakenings - all come with little warning. So much so, that we know this uneventful moment doing groceries at Daylesford, questioning why a singular red bell pepper is 5 British Pounds - is the most delicate thing we are granted. That as much as we enjoy our increased purchasing power in capital cities across the globe, we still recall with even greater fondness the scones in the dining hall. How each shared memory reminds us that each of our former selves recognized each other, and that recognition holds firm today.
That the greatest gift of those college years was knowing they would live on through adulthood, as our college roommate would grow to become our greatest friend. That the luck of the dorm room draw was like a divine allocation in which fortune foresaw that the bond forming in adolescence would be one to carry through each stage thereafter. That despite the countless move, sharp pivot, leap of faith, wildest dream chasing - we shied away from none of it, because we had a co-conspirator taking the same plunge each time.
The shared understanding of when to inch forward versus toe toward safety. The knowing looks, catching a familiar eye as it also bears witness to the phenomena before us and reads it as the same page of a common book. That the cozy liberal arts American campus we met in became a movable cocoon carried through each new continent or phase of life we approached. That the trial run of our former beings outgrew the rest, but never outgrew each other. Understanding that minds can change like the wind blows, but our direction of travel remained the same - and always found the moon.
That great friendship can hit transcendental levels is demonstrated even now, as this post is being typed without your knowledge, your iMessage pops up: “what am I doing without you? The question of our LIVES.”
