One of My Favorite Feelings

You know when you have a friend who you're really close with, like one of your best friends that you tell absolutely everything to, and you talk every day? But then sometimes, for some reason or another, but mostly just because life gets in the way, you kind of drift apart for not really any reason at all; no single action, no dramatic ending. It just happens. And then before you know it, it's been a whole year since you've talked. Well obviously, that's not my favorite feeling.

The favorite feeling part comes when you see that person, a year after absolutely no communication, and it's like you never missed a beat. You fall back into step with each other, almost as proof that your friendship was something that really meant something, something that was intended to last. Like a confirmation that you made a good choice in picking that person to be such a close friend to begin with.

One of my best friends that I had from middle school on through high school was a boy I met through club swimming. We had our little middle school crushes on each other once; technically he was my first "boyfriend" (aka we held hands like twice). But we moved passed that and stayed really close. We told each other literally everything - the first time I got my heart broken, I called him; the first time he got in a really huge fight with his parents, he called me and we stayed on the phone until we were laughing instead of being upset; when his girlfriend in his senior year in high school told him she was pregnant, I was the first one he called as he sat in his car outside her house, devastated. We talked through every decision he made from that point on, when he decided it was not that baby's fault that he made a mistake, and he was not going to deprive her of a father because of that. I met that little baby girl when she was about 6 months old...and a spitting image of her dad.

And then, as raising a baby will do, he got busy and I got busy and we just didn't have the time to talk on the phone all the time like we used to; and we obviously weren't swimming together anymore. And we stopped talking pretty much for over a year. But here you have it, swimming brought us together again - this time as coaches. Yesterday I coached my beginner group at their first ever meet, and he coaches for the pool that was hosting the competition. I saw him from across the pool, and following a huge hug, we just picked up right where we left off. The whole time, I was just so impressed by how much he's grown-up and taken responsibility for himself and the life that he's living. It's by no means easy for him, but watching the look in his eye when his now-2-year-old runs up to him, tells me that it's all worth it. That's an image I'm not soon going to get out of my head. True joy.