Friendship, I have learned, mirrors the life of a traveler. There is always a beginning. In this specific case, the trip began 25 years ago. In decades past, there was a day where it began. My very best girlfriend laid her eyes upon "the new guy". We were in the 6th grade when he blew into town on the wind of a family filled with change and pain, not unlike my own story. The nights that ensued were filled with giggles and imaginings on her part... On mine the bricks of a foundation were placed that would over time become a structure to withstand all weather. A triumvirate that molded the personalities of three children.
Together we became first friends, processed first loves, adorned our best for first dances, and created the first friendships that would gauge all others. Standards were set as the days molded into weeks, months and years. Memories were created, both first and second hand, but always shared as one.
As the trip through time continued, mountains were climbed, hills were rolled down, and doldrums were patiently set through. All the while our hearts thawed and grew together to form the bonds of brothers and sisters. Being a child from split families that was never afforded the opportunity to spend a lot of time developing relations with my blood and law siblings, it was these two friends who filled all of the shoes. Each grade completed... each milestone reached built more and more stories atop the fortress we were erecting.
As the years have a way of doing, there were times of great distance between us all. No matter what, as each new milestone of life ensued, positive or negative, any time any of us was to reconnect with the others, not a single beat had been missed. Nothing ever changed in our love or security... It was consistently paralleled to the days watching Disney movies, amongst laughter and tears. However, those movies became our own life experiences. Every genre encountered, even the occasional foreign film. A library of journeys built together upon the never crumbling bricks of youth and the indestructible mortar of hopes and dreams.
As we all set together this past week in our suburban homes, for a moment I was able to truly harness the powerful strength that is two plus decades of time shared. It was so profound and heartwarming. New generations, our children, are watching those same Disney movies that aided us in creating our own fairytales. As I hear their soundtracks playing through my mind, I realise how extremely blessed I have been to have had such continuity in my life. A life which was otherwise lacking any semblance of harmony through the majority of those times.
I stare into the rain as the traveler drives into his unknown journeys. I think of my very best girlfriend, now across town, and for the first time I can honestly say I understand how she must have felt all those years ago. Remembering that although see-you-laters are very uncertain, they are most certainly never goodbyes...
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