WARNING: This post filled with an absolute purging of my emotional-ness. It was a tough day. Be prepared. Well, at least you were warned.
It was tough seeing all those people that I had planned on never seeing again. And holding my tongue about how much they all hurt her by not keeping in touch was even tougher. But all the while, I had to remind myself to be less selfish, because she impacted all of their lives in some way as well. It wasn't only my life that she touched, but thousands of others. However, I was incredibly blessed because during the slideshow, one of the photos was her and I from my graduation. I about lost it all right there. Afterwards, I was speaking with her husband, Joe (who is by the way, the world's sweetest guy), and he said, "She really loved you, you know?". It was something I had always known, but it was wonderful to hear.
While listening to all the speakers tell of their favorite memories of her, I couldn't help but thinking of my own favorite times with her. First, I cannot overlook the first time we met. It was a connection of kindred spirits from the start. She always used to tell me that we were so similar, that it was almost scary. And we really were. For goodness sakes, we even had matching sweatshirts that say 'Trouble" and "Double Trouble". And we kept true to our namesakes.
We would spend hours in her office, talking about absolutely nothing, but having a sensational time. She'd get me out of classes, just so we could spend time together and eat our weight in Reeses Peanut Butter cups, or cry about the hardships of life. We were quite a pair. I remember a time when she made me pretend to cry, because she saw the teacher whose class I was skipping coming around the corner. She told him that I was just having a "tough day" and needed a break. She was a genius. And she totally had my back.
One of the times when we completely lost it because of our ridiculousness, was Christmas shopping at Target last year. She had asked if I would take her out, because the normal people that took her were the ones she wanted to shop for. So, I picked her up and after running a few errands, we finally arrived at Target. She decided that she should grab one of those motorized carts, because we didn't know how long it was going to take us. Actually, rewind that. We knew EXACTLY how long it was going to take us...forever. There was only one scooter left, and apparently it was a little...off. Well, it went forwards fine, but whenever it stopped this horrible buzzer went off, and a ear-piercing beep when it went backwards. Since it was the only one left, we decided it couldn't be THAT bad. Well, it was. The buzzer went off so many times, that rather than stopping, she'd just creep along the aisles, and if we didn't see everything we needed, she'd make this huge loop around all the other aisles to get back to the one she wanted. It was hilarious! After over 2 hours of craziness, I'm sure the Target employees were glad to see us leave, and enjoy the silence of our no-longer-beeping scooter.
All in all, she was one of the best friends I've ever had. I don't even think it's sunk in that I won't get to go out for coffee with her again. Or call her when I've had a bad day. Or buy matching rings. Or share utter ridiculousness with.
But thanks to our common bond in Jesus, I know that I will see her again. Not like she was, but how she was always meant to be. It'll be perfect. There are not many things that I know without a doubt. But, of that I am absolutely sure.
2 comments:
Shawn Smith. And I love you.
Wow, Caroline. You're pwning Round Two, thus far. Making up for our lack of winning last time?
Post a Comment