December 16: Friendship

I'm participating in #reverb10, a month-long challenge to blog every day of December based on prompts provided here.

Prompt: Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst? (Author: Martha Mihalick)

I am always intrigued by friendship. You can spend years developing a close friendship with someone you see almost every single day, and the second one or both persons moves somewhere else, the friendship withers and dies (like some college friends). Or, you can have a short and brief period of friendship, and when you two part ways, you both try work very hard to maintain it (like some friends I met studying abroad). And then there's the we-only-talk-sometimes-and-it-doesn't-matter-how-far-away-from-each-other-we-are-or-when-we-see-each-other-next-we-always-will-be-friends friendships.

No friend has changed my perspective on the world this year. So instead I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about how grateful I am for one good friend.

I've hopped the fence at the LPD pool with John and dumped all the chairs in. I followed the Tour de France with his family a couple summers ago. At my birthday party, he got all my French friends to play Sardines. I can have fun anywhere with John, whether it's on the Eiffel Tower or in the grocery store. He makes a game out of everything and is never dull. We like to sit in the car with the doors closed and windows up and spray a whole bottle of Axe. Whoever opens the door first loses. It's called the Axe game. And besides from being fun to spend time with, he's a thoughtful and genuine guy. Here's a good example:

I get a phone call from John a few weeks ago, who lives in California, but is home for Thanksgiving.

"I am at the Lemont liquor store and they have tons of Four Loko. I'll buy it all, just say the word."

Instead of the whole store, he only buys me three cases, nearly $100 worth. I'll pay him back later. But, John is such a good friend he would buy a whole store of Four Loko for me. In my phone contacts, he is saved as John Good Friend.