I often ponder… “what is my life?” Accomplishments, goal(s)… but mostly I think about my friends. Not really which are my real friends, but how many of those real friends do I have. A friend that’s always there. Someone who won’t forget about you down the line. A real friend. As I contemplate, I often forget to appreciate the true friends that are here now.
I was unfortunate enough to be reminded of one such friend as I entered the engineering building Tuesday Oct. 6, 2009. It was around 10:15pm when I passed something that gave me the grim reminder and sent a chill down my spine as I looked on in total shock and awe.
I remember my friend as far back as elementary school. He was a light-skinned guy, with kind of square glasses and a high-top fade. I remember so vividly because I have a picture from back then that I was going to give to his then girlfriend’s brother to embarrass him a little.
Things were different back then. School friends would always be at school, until they leave. That happened a few times, as I would later in life see this particular friend more than once. The next encounter would be when I made it to Crestworth Middle. One day I was in P.E. and noticed a now taller version of my friend with smaller glasses and way less hair. I must admit, I didn’t believe it was him at first since he looked so different. It was a great to see Mike again. And we could still talk to each other a usual. And this was when my individualism began to become more apparent. We’d chill, same as always.
Just as we picked up, same as always, so did the cycle. The next time I saw him was in Mayberry, still same as always. We even exchanged numbers. I may have called once. I was sure the time passed may have made us too different. Then I’d see him maybe three more times over the years until the last time I passed him about a week or two ago. We crossed each other near James. We spoke, but I was in a hurry to get where I was headed. I was in a hurry. I wish I had known that where I was going could have waited.
Tuesday, I walked into the engineering building and stopped in awe as I saw a huge memorial that read “R.I.P. Michael Bailey.” It wasn’t a crude joke as I thought it was. It wasn’t a mistake. I hurried through life, and found out two days late.
I often ponder can I have more real friends that will always be there? Right now, however it doesn’t matter. I just lost one. A real one.
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A real friend lost
October 8, 2009
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