One of my great joys in life is airing other peoples' dirty laundry. Not necessarily dirty laundry even.. Just embarrassing laundry.
Last night after work I got to spend a few hours with one of my closest and dearest friends, Aulona. If you've been a follower for a while you'll know she's far from a new character in my life. My all-time-top-of-the-list favourite thing about Aulona is her lack of personal space issues. You're not really friends with Aulona until she does something uncomfortably personal in front of you. It's quite endearing really.
So Aulona and I ate an amount of Chinese food that would make normal people hate themselves. We sat in the empty restaurant for about an hour and talked, and laughed, and reminisced, and discussed how all either of us want in life is to sit in Chinese restaurants and discuss how much we dislike the people we went to highschool with (livin' the dream). Post Chinese food, we got back in my car, stuck in a CD and rocked out to Jesse Mccartney like only girls born 1992 through 1995 can. Jesse Mccartney transitioned into uncomfortably racist novelty rap, which took a smooth step over to less embarrassing pop and then an abrupt 180 to aggressively annoying country music. All said and done, I woke up this morning with a sore throat and the chorus of Beautiful Soul burrowing cranial pathways I never really wanted.
At the end of 12th grade, Aulona felt the need to run a little, and did. All the way to Ottawa, about 7 hours away from me. Every time she comes home, we party like it's 2011, and for however long we're together, we were never apart. Nothing's different, nobody's sad. For 3 hours, or 4 hours, or a whole day, everything's perfect. Unfortunately, last night, there was a bass drum in the back of my mind every few minutes telling me summer's almost over. Everyone's almost gone again.
I've always had older friends, which means every August since I was 15 has had a tiny undertone of goodbye. It sucks, we've all stood on the sidelines of the August Exodus and waved goodbye to our comfortable year, and at some point, we'll all be the ones on the move, waving and smiling, and trying not to look back. It sucks, for absolutely everybody.
To that end, we would hate ourselves for not taking those risks, finding the scariest path and running down it, and joining the August Exodus. Likewise, we would hate our friends for staying back for us, but it doesn't make it any easier. What makes it easier is nights like last night, where for 3 hours, no one's going anywhere but the parking lot of our highschool and an empty Chinese restaurant.
My message to those leaving is this: Goodbye, I love you, safe journey, stay in touch, and no matter where you go, if only for an hour, come back.
To Aulona specifically, I promise that when you ask to Skype me at 3 am to tell me how much everything in the entire world drives you crazy, I'll try my very hardest to look like I'm awake, and when you come home to visit me, you can tell me everything again over cosmos and I'll actually listen to you. I also promise, I won't yell the words to The Motto with anybody but you. Because that's special.. And a little racist, but it's okay.
Also, please don't leave me alone to sing Jesse Mccartney in my car by myself.. Because that's how crazy people happen.
Cheers, friends.
