brief snapshots in time. memories and thoughts. disorganized and random.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

true friendship

there were fifty some thousand people around. I heard my name. I looked up. there was my friend Jen.

I haven't seen her since college. she was one of the coolest girls I knew. she was in engineering with me, but a year ahead. she was a mentor of sorts to me and my other friend Jen. by that I mean she took us under her wing and went to grab margaritas with us when we were supposed to be in our every-Thursday-afternoon engineering class.

she was like the big sister I never had. she gave me a guitar for graduation. she insisted to the other Jen and I that we could still be cool and fun while being enginerds, even after she switched out of engineering.

we used to take road trips every summer together. usually up to the northwest to visit the other Jen. we were supposed to be roommates my senior year, but she ended up transferring to another school to finish up engineering. after college we kept in touch a little, but as too often happens, lost touch eventually.

I've thought about her often since college. she probably has no idea, but she is definitely one of the reasons I never considered taking the easier route and switching out of engineering entirely when the going got tough. she also made me see that if I wanted to also get a business degree, I should. she was excited when I told her I was going to grad school for engineering, unlike my family. she's the "older sister" that helped me to believe in myself and all the possibilities.

a while back, I saw an article on her in our alumni magazine and e-mailed her. she had told me she was dating a guy from Colorado, and that she was here from time to time. but I had no idea she'd be at the game yesterday. and she had no idea I'd be there either.

we caught up on each others' lives, as best you can at halftime. she's getting married in a couple of weeks. in Colorado. even though neither she nor her fiancée lives here now. they eventually plan to move here.

talking with Jen was like my own little time machine. it was like we were standing on our own campus, not a thousand miles from where we went to school, over a decade later. sure the maroon and white at the football game had been replaced by black and gold. but it seemed very little else had changed.

true friendship. when neither time nor distance matters.

7 comments:

clew said...

These moments are the best :)

Thanks for sharing!!!

Yoda said...

I love what you wrote about her probably having no idea that she's one reason why you stayed the course with engineering.

My guess is that you've got a friend or two who were similarly inspired by you.

~Kurt

Jeremy said...

Enginerd. That is good.

The World Against Me said...

Wow.. thanks for sharing that..

I too have a very good friend name Jen that I have known for 15 years now. We lost touch along the way but always seem to come together.

The last line hit the nail right on the head.

Susan said...

Amen - you are so right about True friendship. I feel the same way about my friend C. No matter what happened it's like nothing no time ever passed between us.

Rebecca said...

Your last line says it all...

Shananigans said...

We are so lucky to have friends like that in our lives. I just caught up with my best friend from college on the phone last night. It had been months since we talked, but it’s always like no time has passed at all whenever we do get the chance to chat. I always tell her she can be married and own a condo all she wants, she’ll always be that amazing girl from college who changed my life forever