The Best of Friends
January 26th, 2006 by MarkTonight, I saw my old friends Aubrey, Lisa and Robb again. I’ve known Aubrey since middle school. Along with Jason and Dan, he was a constant member of my “group” since before our voices changed, before we were interested in girls and before we realized how unyielding reality is. In high school, several other friends including Robb and Lisa joined us as companions in role-playing, video gaming, fencing, martial arts, CCGs, board games and just about anything else we were involved in. Unlike many other groups of friends, most of us stayed friends through college and after. Heck, Aubrey and I even bought a house together when we were 20 and rented it out to our friends… We used to throw parties all the time. Some were big, with 30-50 college buddies, but my favorite ones were smaller. Things weren’t perfect, of course. But all in all, high school and college were good times.
It was both a great and a terrible feeling to see everyone again. On one hand, it was great to hang out. Lisa and Robb moved into a new house and have kept stable jobs after they got married, and now Aubrey’s studying bio-chemistry of all things, but they’re all pretty much the same as when I left. Aubrey is still one heck of entertaining conversationalist, Robb still has half-assembled computers on his living room floor, and Lisa is the same personable gal she’s always been. We all went out for Beau Jo’s pizza, had a lot of laughs, talked of old times and got caught up with each other. Tomorrow, I’ll see some of my best friends from college- Matt (who also lived in our house), Nicole (who ended up marrying Matt), and Mike. It will be a blast for sure.
And the bad part? Well, I guess seeing everyone has forced me to look at exactly how much following my dreams costs me. The whole time I’m in Taiwan saving up money, and later studying, I’ll be away from the friends who will be my friends for the rest of my life. I have an interesting job and I’m learning new things everyday. I know I’d be restless if I lived here now, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I think Neil Peart said it best,
It’s cold comfort:
To the ones without it
To know how they struggled
How they suffered about it
If their lives were exotic and strange
They would likely have gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more saneWe each pay a fabulous price
For our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision is a dream
With a mission.
January 26th, 2006 at 9:19 pm
How tall is your friend all the way to the right? You look like you’re at about 6′2″, which means I guess he’s like, what, 6′7″? He would have to watch his head going through doorways in Asia. I’m about a half-inch short of 6′, so I’m safe
January 27th, 2006 at 3:11 am
I’m about the same height as you are- maybe 6′ right after I get up in the morning and 5′11” by the time I go to bed. My friend on the right is 6′4” or 6′5”. BTW Darin, your site traffic exploded this week. Did you just get a bunch of new links to your site?
January 27th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
Actually it was always about like that according to my ISP’s admin software tracking. I just put the counter on at random so it probably isn’t too accurate yet and needs more time to get a better average. I did also get a link from Occidentalism (http://www.occidentalism.org/) which probably did lots for me. My thoughts on whaling seemed to draw attention too. (Which reminds me I need to add some things to it to show progress from people’s comments
)
I emailed you the list of ping service thingies I list with (some english sites, some japanese) so you can put them all in your own blog too.. But as far as people linking to me, just you.
I think what did it was my swiss-cheeze like arguments in my comments on other people’s blogs — I have a heck of a time making a complete argument . Readers of my comment would think, “who is this idiot?!” and click on my name and eventually get to my blog and hopefully find my thoughts more organized in a more complete “essay” style write-up. (I’m going to try and stop commenting on the political stuff and just write my thoughts on my own site because my simple comments always seem to get twisted around and around and before long I’m being quoted to say I’m a devil worshiper or something like that.. which clearly I didn’t say
)
January 27th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
WHAT!?!?! NO NO NO. something’s wrong with my stats!!
Site counter says on their stats about me right now that:
(Visits) Average Per Day 436
But I’ve been checking it and my average has been like, barely over 50…
They just sent me an email not long ago:
Total …………………….. 465
Average per Day …………….. 60
I’m only showing like, 200 sessions a day with Urchin stats..
There is some mistake. I was wondering why you were talking about my visits going up. I was like huh? 50 ain’t much..
February 5th, 2006 at 4:14 am
Well put, about the price for following your dreams.
It isn’t easy, and now that I’ve met a lot of people who have done it long term, they usually seem to have no money or be more or less alone. But, it can be hard to go back once you start.
July 18th, 2006 at 4:55 am
Wow… respect for another Rush fan
September 1st, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Mark,
I (we) respect you more than you know. We all miss you, but are very supportive of your dream(s)!
And you are right, you will always have us for the rest of your life!
You have reminded me that I have always wanted to travel to China / Taiwan!
Keep your spirits up! We are all bragging about our friend Mark, who is doing great things!
-Your friend Dan!