The Friday Five

1. Do you remember your first best friend? Who was it?

I do have a recollection of who it was. His name may have been Ben (that's funny). I have a picture from when I was in preschool. Ben, myself, and two other unknown boys are standing at the top of the fort on my church's playground. We are standing, looking "tough" and of course, I have my arms cross like I'm saying, "Uh jigga, what?"

2. Are you still in touch with this person?

Not at all and I can't even remember his last name. Oh, I just remembered, it's Huff.

3. Do you have a current close friend?

Yes, I've got a few. I always got annoyed at people who had twenty-seven best friends. I thought, even at a younger age, best indicated the greatest and you could only have one or two. I'm sure there are rules. But, for the sake of this site, I'll say that Justin is my closet friend. Justin is the closest because I've known him my whole adult life, plus a couple of years before my newfound responsibilities. I've just been a closer friend to him longer. Let's see, I have other close friends (not in any particular order): Nick, Bryan, Thomas, Tara, Wyatt, Annie, Ariel, Teresa, Bethany, Chase, Stephanie, Lori, Jeremy G., Jeremy C., Greg, etc.

4. How did you become friends with this person?

The story of our first encounter is funny. He was a pretty clean-cut guy, but he had a goatee, and at our school, facial hair is symbolic for rebellion (not really). He worked at a Christian music store and this place had the best selection of faith inspired punk and hardcore I had ever seen. One day, my good friend (at the time), Kevin and I had gone there. Kevin and I realized Justin went to our school, so we talked to him. It was a good conversation at first. But, then Kevin and him started sharing their undying affections for "The Force", George Lucas, and the whole Star Wars religion, which I didn't understand then and still don’t. Then, he started blatantly and outlandishly criticizing punk and hardcore music, citing it as "loud noise" (that may have been an overstatement). At first, the friendship looked as though it could have never existed. However, just both being on campus a lot and hanging out with some mutual friends, we eventually set our differences behind us and became friends. And to this day, Justin likes punk and hardcore more than he did before and as for Star Wars and me, well, he hasn't had any influence in that department.

5. Is there a friend from your past that you wish you were still in contact with?

Yeah, there are a few. You know, just good friendships that faded out for whatever reason. I'll say this, because of the downfall of a lot of friendships (with girls especially), I've written some of my best poetry and songs, to the tune of our failed relationship(s). So, if those are worth it, than I'd say the loss of friendship was too. But, I'd still give back some of those songs for some of those good old friends.