I remember high school graduation and the summer following it probably more clearly than I should. I really clung to those "last few days of freedom" as if life ended as soon as dorm life began. I remember laughing at my mom (and youth pastor...and older friends) when they told me that I would inevitably lose touch with most of my high school friends and "meet all my lifelong best friends in college."
Yeah right! I was determined, albeit somewhat subconsciously, to cling to the old and in doing so block out any potential newbies. Safe to say the plan worked at Pepperdine, my freshman year, where I was inadvertently friend-less. [Note: Somehow Heidi busted through the self-imposed cage I locked myself in in Malibu, and I did come out with one very cherished and continuing friendship.]
"College round 2" for me began fall of '05 at Westmont. Proper thanks is due to Mark McCormack (Mark the RD!) for somehow getting me (the transfer) into the best dorm on campus (VK) and into a room with two of the most fantastic people I would ever meet at Westmont (Amanda Crowley and Sarah C. Sheets).
Rumor has it they weren't expecting me as a third roommate, and dare I say it, they didn't really want me, truth be told.
Then they met me for the first time on that swelteringly hot day in August 2005...and they were finally able to see how gifted and amazing I was, so they kept me. Somewhere in the first month they started cheekily calling me "Madison" (as if I wouldn't notice!), and it stuck. I believe the initial conversation went like this:
"So is Maddie short for Madison?"
"No, it's actually short for Madeline."
"Oh, well we like Madison better."
Fast forward through a rollicking fun sophomore year full of highs and lows and TEAM naps...
...then a summer apart...then an entire fall semester our junior year in completely different countries (me in Lithuania, Crowley in New Zealand, and Sarah in that foreign land we call the East Coast). Oh how our travels changed us all. Were we even friends that last semester of our junior year...? Even though we all somehow lived in the same dorm (VK, obvi)...we saw each other less and less. It's hard to keep up with those in another suite and a different major...Westmont is a BIG PLACE, people.
Senior year rolls around and Crowls is now an RA! So Sarah and I sadly take up renting an off-campus house in San Roque, soon to be dubbed "The Madrona House." Friends idled in and out, but we stood strong and united. Both Sarah and I are incredibly intelligent and highly motivated, so we thought hey, let's save some mulah and graduate a semester early! We make all of our best decisions together. (Actually, I think we made this one totally separately and we were both really surprised to find out the other was doing it. Ha. Some friends we are.)
I know I will start crying if I try to even start to sum up what joy and depth has been brought to our friendship throughout the last several years. And honestly, I don't know if anyone else reading this could even come close to understanding the complexities and oddities within it. I've laughed my hardest, cried the longest and learned the most in Sarah's presence. And none of those are an exaggeration in the slightest. Dammit, here come the tears.
So Sarah is moving. On Friday. Which is soon. To Colorado. Which is far. To eventually get married. WHICH DOES NOT INVOLVE ME. Okay, okay, yes I'm in the wedding (speech! speech!)...but after Sarah and Tim say their "I do's" there will be no more sleepovers or video-chatting from within the same room or planning crazy timeshare trips on the kitchen floor at 2am...OR knowing everything the other person is doing, saying or thinking every waking second of every day. Now I'm starting to sound like a stalker. But we really do have this eery mind-reading capability. We've only briefly tested it out long-distance though.
Back to my main point: Sarah and I have to say goodbye. Not to our friendship. Not to our inside jokes. Not to our incessant bantering and weird ways of pronouncing and emphasizing words that I'm pretty certain no one else enjoys half as much as we do. But we do have to say goodbye to the every day life stuff. The face time. The seeing each other every freaking day. The seeing each other so much that we often see really bad and ugly sides of each other (and may I just insert here that I am blessed by your forgiveness and grace every day). The sharing of clothes. Need I say more after that one.
You can keep my 'banana slug'/Lithuanian amber earrings, Sarah. But only if I can keep your metal oval ones.
In the words of Jordin Sparks, because Lord knows she says it better than I ever could, "Losing you is like living in a world with no air..."
"Keeeeess keeeeess" - QUOTE: Chris Brown
A picture montage (sorry, not Montag, like as in Heidi...didn't mean to get anyone that excited). If you want more pics of us in action...there are 655 on Facebook. And counting. Huzzah!
Yeah right! I was determined, albeit somewhat subconsciously, to cling to the old and in doing so block out any potential newbies. Safe to say the plan worked at Pepperdine, my freshman year, where I was inadvertently friend-less. [Note: Somehow Heidi busted through the self-imposed cage I locked myself in in Malibu, and I did come out with one very cherished and continuing friendship.]
"College round 2" for me began fall of '05 at Westmont. Proper thanks is due to Mark McCormack (Mark the RD!) for somehow getting me (the transfer) into the best dorm on campus (VK) and into a room with two of the most fantastic people I would ever meet at Westmont (Amanda Crowley and Sarah C. Sheets).
Rumor has it they weren't expecting me as a third roommate, and dare I say it, they didn't really want me, truth be told.
Then they met me for the first time on that swelteringly hot day in August 2005...and they were finally able to see how gifted and amazing I was, so they kept me. Somewhere in the first month they started cheekily calling me "Madison" (as if I wouldn't notice!), and it stuck. I believe the initial conversation went like this:
"So is Maddie short for Madison?"
"No, it's actually short for Madeline."
"Oh, well we like Madison better."
Fast forward through a rollicking fun sophomore year full of highs and lows and TEAM naps...
...then a summer apart...then an entire fall semester our junior year in completely different countries (me in Lithuania, Crowley in New Zealand, and Sarah in that foreign land we call the East Coast). Oh how our travels changed us all. Were we even friends that last semester of our junior year...? Even though we all somehow lived in the same dorm (VK, obvi)...we saw each other less and less. It's hard to keep up with those in another suite and a different major...Westmont is a BIG PLACE, people.
Senior year rolls around and Crowls is now an RA! So Sarah and I sadly take up renting an off-campus house in San Roque, soon to be dubbed "The Madrona House." Friends idled in and out, but we stood strong and united. Both Sarah and I are incredibly intelligent and highly motivated, so we thought hey, let's save some mulah and graduate a semester early! We make all of our best decisions together. (Actually, I think we made this one totally separately and we were both really surprised to find out the other was doing it. Ha. Some friends we are.)
I know I will start crying if I try to even start to sum up what joy and depth has been brought to our friendship throughout the last several years. And honestly, I don't know if anyone else reading this could even come close to understanding the complexities and oddities within it. I've laughed my hardest, cried the longest and learned the most in Sarah's presence. And none of those are an exaggeration in the slightest. Dammit, here come the tears.
So Sarah is moving. On Friday. Which is soon. To Colorado. Which is far. To eventually get married. WHICH DOES NOT INVOLVE ME. Okay, okay, yes I'm in the wedding (speech! speech!)...but after Sarah and Tim say their "I do's" there will be no more sleepovers or video-chatting from within the same room or planning crazy timeshare trips on the kitchen floor at 2am...OR knowing everything the other person is doing, saying or thinking every waking second of every day. Now I'm starting to sound like a stalker. But we really do have this eery mind-reading capability. We've only briefly tested it out long-distance though.
Back to my main point: Sarah and I have to say goodbye. Not to our friendship. Not to our inside jokes. Not to our incessant bantering and weird ways of pronouncing and emphasizing words that I'm pretty certain no one else enjoys half as much as we do. But we do have to say goodbye to the every day life stuff. The face time. The seeing each other every freaking day. The seeing each other so much that we often see really bad and ugly sides of each other (and may I just insert here that I am blessed by your forgiveness and grace every day). The sharing of clothes. Need I say more after that one.
You can keep my 'banana slug'/Lithuanian amber earrings, Sarah. But only if I can keep your metal oval ones.
In the words of Jordin Sparks, because Lord knows she says it better than I ever could, "Losing you is like living in a world with no air..."
"Keeeeess keeeeess" - QUOTE: Chris Brown
A picture montage (sorry, not Montag, like as in Heidi...didn't mean to get anyone that excited). If you want more pics of us in action...there are 655 on Facebook. And counting. Huzzah!
Could this be the first picture we ever took together...?
President's Ball '05...
Any excuse to dress 80s...
Awaking from a TEAM SAM nap...
Me, the midge? Shocking...
My first Spring Sing...
Q's!!!!! (R.I.P.)...
In the garage...
Loving...
I love you, Sarah!
1 comments:
Maybe you can spend these last few days watching her sleep. That always put me at ease.
Post a Comment
Please include your email so I can better respond to you!