So as I was just sitting here doing nothing, waiting for lunch to be served, I was checking my emails and noticed I have 23 pages worth of emails saved up in Hotmail. 23 pages of more than 30 emails is quite a lot...when did I stop deleting them I wondered? So I clicked on page 23 and began reading. An email to Joel after Spring Break of 2006 when Char'Lee, Lauren, Carlee and I all hopped into Arnold and drove down to Boca Raton, Florida. After waking up before the sun and driving 12 hours on I-95 South we finally arrived in sunny Florida. I don't remember too many details of the drive...except that when we finally readed West Palms we were ready to be there...I was speeding as I passed a State Trooper going North (very unusual for me ;-)). He turned around over the median and followed me South and just when I was freaking out because I was going to be pulled over in Florida, on Spring Break, he flashed his lights at a VW Jetta to my left and pulled him over instead. I don't believe I sped the rest of the way there.
This was the year I turned 21...I still don't think the girls have truly forgiven me, but I blame it on them--it was the 3 wise men they bought me that did me in. All I remember is that it is the closest I have come to a run in with a cop, one that wasn't airport security that is. It was a Spring Break of a lifetime...strawberry daquiries on the porch watching the sunset, gorgeous cristal clear blue water and an endless supply of warm sun on the beach. The email was a thank youfor letting us crash at his place, accompanied by the lyrics of the song "Te extraño" and the reply, the very earliest email I have saved, was a sweet reply saying how nice it was to have us down there, and to come back whenever we had the urge to get away.
I guess I began deleting again after this date because I have very few emails for the rest of that year, really until July of 2007 when I made the journey down to Costa Rica for the first time for a 6 month exchange program. The very first email I received when I arrived was from Aubrey. She said we had just gotten off the phone and she wanted to write right away so it was the first I read when I got down here. It was a beautiful email about how thankful she was for my friendship, for always answering my phone and chatting to her for hours, for giving her the energy to follow her dreams because I was stubbornly pursuing mine. She wrote about why she believes the Lord sent her to North Carolina for college, specifically to meet the people that would be there for her always to help her through a bad love, perhaps the most low she had ever felt in her life. I remember the first day I met Aubrey. She was the first student I spoke to at Mars Hill the day I arrived for the Honor Scholars retreat. As Mom, Ash and I were hauling my things up the stairs to my new room, Aubrey came out of her room to say hi and offer me the pins I needed to bunk the beds. Turned out she was also an Honor Scholar and while waiting for the bus she introduced me to Lauren. I met Carlee that same day, on the bus ride to the camp site. We had been asked to read The Metamorphasis before we arrived since it would be discussed on the camp, and in one of my fits of laziness I had bought the SparkNotes instead. Turnes out Carlee hadn't read the book either so I offered her the SparkNotes to catch up while on the way. The four of us spent the next three days complaining about the bugs, instantly bonded by our hate for the outdoors. The day we arrived back we met Char'Lee in the cafetaria as we were discussing setting up a game of sand volleyball and so before classes had even officially started I had met the four girls that were my rock all through college. We laughed, we cried, we fought constantly, but we stayed together and helped each other through any storm that came our way.
After sophomore year Aubrey chose to leave Mars Hill, to leave North Carolina and return home to Texas. She had had a rough year, a broken heart, not only from a boy who turned out not to be worth her time, but also from the loss of a close friend to a motorcycle accident. Mars Hill turned out to be Aubrey's hell and the decision to cut her losses was probably the best she could have made for herself. I didn't get to say goodbye--I had gone to visit my dad in South Africa that summer--but the distance apart didn't kill the friendship. All through junior year Aubrey and I talked on the phone constantly. If two days went by without one of us calling it was unusual. I helped her recover, she helped me keep her close. 3 years have gone by and sadly the friendship has withered. We very seldomly chat, even facebook messages are scarce, but I know that anytime I am ever in need of a friend, anytime I want to make a roadtrip to Dallas Texas, Aubrey will be just a phone call away. Maybe I'll have to wait a few days for a return call, but it always comes, because the bond we made that very first weekend will last for the rest of our lives.
I could keep reading old emails, and keep remembering the good ol' days. It seems that since the day I first arrived in Costa Rica I have not once hit the delete botton on an email that didn't come from Facebook. I have hundreds of emails from Mommy saying how much she missed not having me in the US, emails from my brother and sister catching each other up on our lives in less than 3 lines, emails from Eder making plans to go out dancing, but each email I read brings up a memory, some good, some bad, times I miss, and times I wish I could erase. Reminiscing is fun, it gives a new found appreciation to friends for all the times we have spent together, but it is also depressing, remember what I once had and how all of that has changed. On second thought, maybe it is time to stop reading. Lunch is on the table and my mood has turned as dark and depressing as the black clouds rolling in from the west promising another afternoon of heavy rains. Instead I'm going to look for the sunshine that is in my life now, in the form of new friends, of last days of classes,and I'm going to look forward to the new memories I will make today, tomorrow, Sunday, the new memories that I will look back on four years from now and reminisce of those days when I was a grad student in Costa Rica pursuing my dream of being fluent in Spanish. Of course I will never forget the girls that made my undergrad years all they were, even on my death bed I will remember all the things they gave me. Friends like that are hard to come by and I wouldn't change them for the world.
