A Friendship For The Ages

Lately i've been thinking about someone who rarely crosses my mind anymore. An old friend, that i've unfortunately lost touch with. It's sad, because the friendship that we had shaped me to become the person you have all come to know, so it was difficult to realise that I could no longer turn to this person in my times of need.


Let me begin from the top....a few weeks before my 10th birthday, my family informed us that we would be going skiing with the family of one of my mothers co-workers. They had been planning this out for a while now, and to my dismay I had to be social, because the other family had a son my age. The real kicker for me, was that this trip was happening on my birthday so again, another reason for me to not like this kid, or his family. A week prior to the trip the other family came over for coffee and dessert, which served as a chance for the kids to fraternize and get to know one another. If I remember correctly, my first impression of Nick Jeffrey was that he was an annonying little brat, who was completely oblivious to video games, cartoons, and all the fun things a 1o year old enjoyed. I made the most of the night and figured this kid to be decent enough to play with on the trip. One week later we shipped off to the Jeffrey's cabin and began our weekend long adventure. To me, it wasn't all that fun, but then again, when have I ever been known to have fun at any social event.


Alright, lets skip ahead a few months. So finally Nick got a gameboy and the very first pokemon game, Pokemon Blue. Being the kid he was, he'd never as much as touched a gameboy muchless played a video game. So he should he call to ask how to get past all the dangers of the pokemon world...Me. At age 10 I prided myself in being better than others so whenever I got the oppurtunity to show off I took it. We began conversing over the phone, me explaining what a pokemon was, and how to play, and him gasping in excitement. Not to say I didn't enjoy showing him up, but it got pretty annonying after a while. Skip ahead another month or so. Me and Nick had scarcely seen one another, and in the times we did hang out, I pretty much bored him to death by not wanting to do anything that involved physical activity. Oddly enough, I began to trust Nick a bit more, and eventually we began chilling almost every weekend. A few years down the road, probably at age 12 0r 13, Nick had a problem with his heart. He needed surgery to correct it, and when i found out i was pretty upset. The operation was a success but it changed Nick into a completely different person. It was like a complete 360 for the guy. Now instead of me being the leader in our duo, Nick began to take charge. He began losing weight, and playing waterpolo, which I eventually got drafted into as well. It was weird seeing him like this because I was so used to having the old Nick. Then again, the new Nick was just the kind of kid I needed to hang around with.

Nick became one of the most popular guys at his high school and pretty much knew any and everyone in all the grades. Of course I was intrigued in hearing about his tales of how was getting invited to all these different social events and how he made out with this girl in this grade. Usually those thoughts didn't cross my mind, but when Nick talked about them, it was like nothing else seemed to matter. Of course out of the two of us, Nick was the one who began going out on dates with some of the most attractive girls i've ever met, so my jealousy levels were at their max. It was odd, because despite the fact that he had all these new found friends, he still managed to call me up at least twice a week just to chat. Even the popular guys need their advice and I was happy enough to give it.


It's been almost half a year since I last saw Nick, and i'm saddened that our friendship came to such an abrubt halt, but at least I know he's doing good. My mom occassionally talks to his mom, so i'll usually be able to find out how he's doing. I've been thinking about him a lot lately so that's why I choose to write about our friendship. Everything we did is only a memory now, and here I thought i'd had the best man for my wedding already. It's weird thinking about the friends that we once had. It's even weirder since next year i'm starting the friend making process all over again, since i'll only have one friend at BT and that will only help me so much. Until next time..which will be soon, I promise!



J-moose