The Things That Stick With You

When I was in elementary school, the music department got a new teacher for the first time in many, many years. The previous lady had been like 100 years-old, and no fun at all. Suddenly, this young, energetic gal walked through the door and was more fun that any other teacher we'd had up until then. I can't remember her name, but I do remember thinking that she was really, really cool.

One day while I was sitting at my desk in class, she bounded up and sat on top (so crazy!) of the desk next to me. As she chatted with the class, she popped the top of a Coke and began drinking it right in class! I had a profile view of face and could see that when she drank out of the can, she never put her top lip on it. She balanced the opening between her bottom lip and her nose, and then just sort of tipped the soda into her mouth. Now, I just thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I immediately began to drink my sodas that way and still do to this day.

In my life, I've been blessed with a lot of truly great friends. For a long while now I've had a rather large group of people that I've done life with that have stayed close, and stayed single. And while it's almost no one's dream to stay single forever, it's really nice to have a bunch of single people around you while you are. But now for the first time, some of my friends may be moving away to pursue what life has to offer. No one's getting married yet (our group is sort of a relationship black hole), but there are job opportunities in other cities or even other countries to try out.

Now, I know I've been pretty lucky up until now. Most people in their late 20's have all their friends married off and too busy with kids to have time for them. Or, all their friends have moved away and they're one of the only ones left. And while I'm not saying that I don't ever make new friends or anything, it's just been difficult to think of not being around some of these people that I've been close to for the better part of a decade already.

But, if some teacher I once had who's name I can't even remember can change the way I drink soda forever, then all the friends that I can't seem to live without have surely impacted me in a very grand way. I think that we may not always be able to see the ways our friends and family positively impact us while we're near them, but I know I'm personally a better person today because of them all. So, even though they may go away or, Heaven forbid, some of us actually figure out how to get married someday, we'll always carry the best parts of each other around with us. It's a good thing to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.