Nov
24Playing catch up
I’ve been talking to my good friend Ronald a lot lately. Well, actually, we’ve been texting a lot, although, last night I did call him only to hang up five seconds later because his mom was helping him with something. Anyway, I’ve really missed him. I always did look forward to seeing him and hanging out when my family lived in Jersey (once upon a time), but it’s been six years since I last saw him. It wasn’t until recently that I found him on Facebook, and I’m absolutely thrilled to have the chance to catch up with him! :)
Out of the many blogs I had, I don’t think I ever really publicly talked about my terrible, terrible NJ experience when we lived there. Well, I’ll briefly mention it here. I was a sophomore in high school, and I absolutely hated it. I hated my school, I hated my peers, I hated the band. If I ever felt depressed and angry in my life, that would be then. Now, that’s saying a lot because I had a sister who passed away when she was 6, a brother who passed away when I was in 7th grade, and my parents got divorced that same year. To put it lightly, I’d been through hell, but my time in NJ was worse. My mother and I constantly fought. A lot..... A LOT. I felt so invisible and torn inside. It was just...ugly.
Then I met some friends who, surprisingly, did not go to the same school I did. Actually, they went to my sister’s Catholic school (St. Anthony’s), the same school where my mom taught. I hung out a lot at St. Anthony’s after school, and I got to know some of the people there. Ronald happened to be one of the good friends I made. There was also Steven and Ronald’s older brother, Robertlynn (sp?). Casual conversations turned to hanging out outside of school, going to the movies and B&N, etc. I seriously loved them like they were family. They made me laugh and smile without knowing I was dying inside. They kept me sane and functioning. They gave me something to look forward to when everything else around me made me feel suicidal.
Unfortunately, my mom and I were irreparable, and there was no other way to fix it but for me to go back to Texas and just spend time away from her. We were both unhappy and tore each other apart. There wasn’t a single day that we didn’t fight. So I went back when second semester came around, and I didn’t get to stay in touch with Ronald or Steven or anybody. I mean, you’re talking about six years ago, back when there wasn’t Facebook or MySpace, nor did a lot of teenagers back then have cell phones. At least I didn’t, not when I was a sophomore.
So we lost touch completely, and it wasn’t until just a couple of weeks ago that I was browsing through my friends on Facebook, getting ready to delete some whom I haven’t talked to or don’t remember having any affiliation with, when I found Ronald’s name on someone else’s friends list. Wow, was I excited! So of course I added him, and we’ve been staying in contact ever since. Yeah social networking technology lol! *insider* :P I got to talk to him on the phone, and I tell you, it’s certainly nice to know that some things never change ;)
Anyway, I’m absolutely thankful to God for this wonderful blessing of bringing old friends back into my life. I hope we never lose touch again, and remain good friends for life. I owe him quite a lot for all that he did for me. They may have been little things, normal things to him, but to me, they meant the world. I don’t know how I could’ve survived that time of my life without his friendship.