To college (pt. 2)
CHAPTER 16
Part 2
To college…
Before my first year of college was cut short I had some of the most curious encounters with people. The second night, I was sitting outside, and I don’t fully remember how I met him, but I knew I had never met someone like him in my life. I had never met a “skater boy” before, but always thought they were the coolest. I had always been fascinated by “skater boys” because I had no idea how to skateboard. Still to this day, I’m amazed at how fucking cool they look. If you tell me you can do a backflip, cool, if you tell me you can do a trick on a skateboard, mind fucking blown. There’s just something badass about skateboards and motorcycles. I don’t remember how, or why we started talking but we sat on the wall outside Rez for hours. After a few times meeting outside by the wall, we exchanged numbers, I never thought to ask his name the first few nights, so my roommate refer to him at “the skater boy from outside”. I had never met him indoors and we text each other “meet you outside”, no reason, just why not outside. I had never thought of dating anyone, before I met him. I’ve determined that I am the kind of person that needs to be friends with you, then accidently start dating you. I talked to him almost every night for almost 2 months, then we went skiing/snowboarding once in the winter and then I saw him again the last week before I left. It’s always weird to look back and think how close you were to someone for what seems, to now, only have been a few moments. It makes you rethink if you perceived it all wrong, maybe there was nothing there, maybe they just killed time with you while they had a toque.
ADAM, you are everything I want in a friend, and nothing I was looking for. You are incredibly talented. For those of you who don’t have the absolute pleasure of knowing Adam, firstly that sucks, and secondly, Adam is one of the most talented musicians you have never heard of. In college he used to come to my room high as a kite, sit down on my bed and play my guitar until we both fell asleep. I’d wake up to the guitar put away and in a dreamlike state of what had happened on my journey to sleep. Adam and I had grown up in completely opposite ways, but both shared a curiosity for people. We constantly asked each other in-depth questions about how we perceived the world, people we both knew, each other, family, past lives, spirituality, etc. Meeting Adam and growing so close, so quickly, made me examine the difference between nature verses nurture. With him I felt safe, “normal” and understood. Even though we hadn’t gone through any of the same struggles, I felt he understood me. Still, all these years later and not having seen him in 4 years, he still feels so close, he still feels the same. We’ve grown and changed, but the instant familiarity, when talking to him, remains. His no judgment, fuck it, wise, attitude, still brings me comfort when I facetime him every few weeks. Adam, the all of the rest, is our story, our memories, and I’ll keep those for us. I hope you know how loved and needed you are. I could talk to you endlessly.
College was everything I’d wanted for so long and like everything good, it ended too soon. Around December of my first year, I started feeling worst, and by March I was forced to drop out, because I was too sick to make it to class. But on a night when I had to go to the hospital, I called the guy my roommate was sleeping with at the time, a guy I barely knew and he drove me, it’s weird what happens when you literally don’t have the strength to act strong. He owed me nothing, not even a ride to the hospital, but he did it anyway, with no complaints. 2 years later he came to visit me in NYC, no hospital visits that time.