Anyway, during that first week of 10th grade I was assigned two lab partners in Biology and one of those lab partners led to most of my high school friends and many, many memories. As typical with a small town high school, we had crushes on each other (at different points in time), he was the object of a very weird love triangle with two of my now very good friends, we played tennis, drank grain alcohol mixed into Hawaiin Punch, collected 50 seeds for Biology and during that project I tried chewing tobacco and dry heaved for hours and hours, he joined my church and we went through confirmation classes and softball coached by my father.
We lost touch after high school and he made some very bad choices. VERY bad. But, at the 20 year reunion he was sober and looked great, his wife seemed happy, and their kids are cute.
I have now spent 10 minutes trying to decide how to tell you where I am in the photo if you couldn't tell. I am on his right when looking at the photo, but really I am on his left IN the photo and I don't know which one is the right way to tell you. How about I have on the white shirt. I babble, because the hard stuff is next.
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Two nights ago, he was speeding, drinking and not wearing his seatbelt. He is in a coma.
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The evening I got the news about my high school friend, some friends asked us AGAIN to go skiing/snowboarding/tubing with them for the weekend. I immediately said, "Maybe next year when I have lost a bit more weight." They are used to that song and dance and just smiled and said, "cool".
Then I looked at Mr. P and out of NOwhere I said, "YES. We CAN go." So yesterday I found a hotel, rented a car, got a pet sitter, and figured out what we have to do to rent equipment. Tomorrow at lunch we will pack up and head north to a VERY cold eight degree mountain and we will try our hands at skiing and tubing and bringing in the New Year in a life where I no longer say NO because of my weight.
I am done WAITING. I am ready to be LIVING.
Because you just never know.
15 comments:
you are so right and we ALL could use this reminder once in a while.
im so so sorry about your friend.
You are absolutely right. Life is for living right at this very moment. I am sorry about your friend.
I am so sorry to hear about your friend. I am sure he would be thrilled to know that he inspired you to say YES to things that you would normally say NO to. That is a great way to honor him.
Thoughts are with you and enjoy your winter trip.
Oh, HP, I'm so sorry. Keeping your friend (and you) in my thoughts today. Please keep us posted.
Good for you for siezing the day! Life's too short for "what if's."
That rocks... You SEIZE THE DAY!
On the other hand, I'm sorry to hear about your friend. That is so difficult.
About your friend - that's rough. I'm so sorry.
Flipping the auto-response from no to yes is still very hard for me...I commend you for doing it. Hope you have a BLAST in the snow!
That trip sounds so fun, I always like snow resort type places...although the time we went to a place like that I spent more time drinking by the fire than doing ANYTHING outside.
Who is that in the picture, I can't tell?
That is really sad news about your friend. Alcoholism is such a destructive thing.
Thanks for reminding us to say yes to life.
I cannot even tell you how sorry I am to hear about your friend. My thoughts are with you, him, and his family.
May he recover, and find the same lesson in all this that you did. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Right on! Sometimes the good is too fleeting, so you have to GRAB IT WITH BOTH HANDS.
I'm really sorry about your friend. I hope that he pulls through.
Great post - but sad story. I hope your friend comes out of the coma and you have a great time on your trip!
What a sad way to make us all remember to LIVE in the NOW and not always wait to do stuff.
So sad to 'hear' about your friend.
i'm late to the party--you are now in my state probably spent the day on the slopes having a great time and i'm sooo happy for you. i'm glad you didn't put it off until next year. i'm sorry to hear that about your friend, really. how horrible. i hope he comes out of the coma soon.
I'm sorry about your friend. I hope he gets another chance at life. Sometimes we all do need to realize it can all be gone in the blink of an eye, with one (or a few) poor decisions, and what then? Good for you for going and I hope you had a blast! Happy New Year!
This is possibly one of the most heartfelt posts you have every written. My thoughts and a little piece of my heart are with you during these heavy times.
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