A New Adventure

A New Adventure

As I've mentioned a hundred times before, I grew up next door to four girls who have become my “sisters”. In this blog, I refer to them as: August, Arden, Aspen, and Arlo. Our friendship has been strong for the last 9 years, and we have had many adventures. Last Saturday was a sad day for our little group. August had a flight to Colorado, because she has a summer job there. To compound the sadness, Arden moved to Colorado indefinitely this last Wednesday. So even though August is returning at the end of the summer, a “Greattastic Era” ended with her leaving, because nothing will ever be the same.

Last Sunday, as we do every week, my family went to Mass. No sooner had it started then I saw Arden, sitting on the other side of the church. I tried to concentrate on the mass/praying, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop crying. About halfway through, I had to go to the bathroom to get tissues and calm myself down. When I returned into the church, I decided to sit with Arden for the rest of the Mass.

When Mass was over, we went to the drive-thru at the Crimson Cup across the street and Arden gave me the “it's all going to be ok” speech. “You know this doesn't mean we're not friends anymore.” she said, “We've been together too long, this isn't going to change anything, and you know I'm going to fly back as much as possible.” Logically I knew she was right, but my heart couldn’t really believe her.

The next day something else happened. One of my friends quit his job. It is not public knowledge yet. As a result, I'm not going to say what he quit doing, though I will write another blog to send him off. He texted me and told me he was leaving. It was a little too much for me too fast, so I went on a walk to clear my head.

I was going to walk down to the rose garden in town (better known as the Park of Roses), and then walk home. To get there from the street I was walking on, you have to walk past a little playground. I got to the playground and at first everything looked normal. Kids playing while parents watched. Suddenly I noticed that the ground around me was wet. I looked around and saw that a huge pond had formed where it should not have. It was about the size of a football field. Huge trees sprouted from the makeshift pond, and in the middle of the pond stood a bench. The water was so high, I couldn't see the legs of the bench, so it looked like it was floating on the water.

All my instincts were telling me to jump in and stand on the bench, because it would be a good picture for the blogs social media. The only reason I did not go in was because I was afraid it was a sewage leak. Still, I walked around the perimeter, always keeping my eye on that bench...continually tempting myself.

I saw a woman and her daughter also eyeing the bench. The woman had a really nice camera around her neck, and she was taking pictures of everything. The woman said she wanted to get on the bench, and I expressed my concerns. “It's just a water main break.” The woman said, “it's more or less tap water.” I smiled, looked into her eyes, and without a second of hesitation waded through the knee deep water to the bench.

Change is hard, it always has been, and it always will be. But no matter what, whenever there is a change, there's always a new adventure filled with new friends, and new stories to tell. Don't forget who you were before the change. Don't just keep replaying all the hits- like a Disney movie. In an attempt to both move on, but remember my past I've decided to do something small, but meaningful to me. I've decided to start going by the nickname that my “sisters” gave to me. This will signify, that no matter what happens to our little group, the girls will always be with me. So, I guess there's only one thing left to say now:

Dear Arden, thank you for everything. Thank you for being my friend, and keeping us together through thick and thin. I promise to watch out for your sisters while you're gone. But you have to promise me something. Always remember how cool you are, and know that you are loved by all of us back home. Cuz…

Our lives have been Greattastic with you.

J. Mitchie Ulibarri