Little things

1) Walks around Green Lake.

2) These soups.

3) Big earrings.

4) Flash mobs.

5) Chicken Bahn mi.

6) Vampire Weekend.

7) Slam poetry.

8) Old pictures.

9) Eudora Welty.

10) Spring.

Before I even knew myself

New friends bring new perspective. You don't know what you don't know until a new person in your life tells you about their experiences. New people become old friends faster than you realize.

But I'm so equally thankful for the old friends, the people who knew me before I even knew myself. The people who have watched my adamant declarations of like and dislike, of love and hate, and nod along when those preferences switch completely.

I used to think it was easier to evolve into who you really are when there weren't people around who knew the old you. But recently I've realized that those people accepted who I am now long before I decided to become that person. They loved me for who I am today when I couldn't even imagine who that was going to be.

Old friends are magical.

The episode was ending.

I don't remember the plot, don't have the emotional stamina to go back and find out. The kids were singing that song my sister played by the pool at my aunt's house last summer when I'd gone home to visit. I was just back from there, though for a very different reason. I was just raw.

The song went on, gaining energy. The kids clapped and danced and joined the singing. Their voices were beautiful, as always. I get emotional when I watch that show, it's so close to home. So derivative of my own life in high school.

The song went on.

"Run fast for your mother, run fast for your father," they sang, smiling. My cheeks were soaked. This was not the first time that week, that day even. It had been happening spontaneously during everyone else's everyday moments. I had a plan to say I was having an allergy attack if anyone asked why.

"Leave all your love and all your longing behind. You can't take it with you if you want to survive." I continued on the couch, comfortable with neither what I wad hearing nor my reaction. They smiled and clapped. I still don't understand the clapping.

I have still never heard it without bursting into tears. I wonder every time if I'm the only one. I wonder if one day I'll hear it and clap.


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Sunrise, Sunset

Scene: AMC showed a clip from Fiddler on the Roof in a commercial for the same movie. I, therefore, had If I Were A Rich Man stuck in my head. When I have songs stuck in my head, I sing them.

HD: What is that from?

Me: Fiddler on the Roof.

HD: The old one or the new one?

Me: What do you mean, the old one or the new one?!

HD: Isn't the new one in 3D?!

Me: !

In it

We are all dealing with our own things. What is important is that we remember that, and try to provide the perspective needed to get each other out. And we will always get out, and be stronger for it.