Christmas Pizza

When I started going to Malone, I didn't know anyone. I knew a couple of Betsy's friends who were also freshmen, but they weren't particular friends of mine, just people I knew and chatted with when I ran into them. I was nervous about it, it being college, at the beginning of senior year, but by the end of the year I was really glad I was going to be starting over with a new group of friends and a whole new environment. For various reasons, senior year sucked a lot. I'm not saying that to be all mysterious and dramatic and vague. I'm saying because I'm over the stuff that happened then, and looking back it was all for the best and I don't need to talk about why it sucked. But I'm mentioning that it was terrible because that's the reason why I didn't make a huge effort to stay in touch with my friends from high school last year. Of course I was really busy adjusting to my new schedule and friends which played a large part as well. After all, I still loved my friends. I just wanted to take some time to distance myself from...well, pretty much everything. Even people I love, people who were there for me. I needed time off.

This year has been really nice, because I'm getting back in touch with friends I haven't seen much since I started college. For example, the week before Christmas, I met up with some choir friends at the Christmas Candlelight Concert our choir performs at every year.. I was worried at first that we were all going to be too different and it was going to be one of those terrible moments when you realize that your old friends aren't friends anymore, but as soon as I saw the first couple of friends, I knew it was going to be okay. I saw Jake first, because he's pretty flipping tall, and grinned a cheesy grin, because it was just like old times, guys. Then I saw Ginny, and she ran over and gave me a huge hug, and reminded me that we NEED to hang out, especially since I'm only about 15 minutes away from her when I'm at Malone. And then we talked about how we sat next to each other for years and years and she always thought that as long as she held her music up in front of her face our director couldn't tell what she was doing at all. (Shout out to Ginny, who told me that night that she reads this blog. Woo hoo!) Ginny was ushering and Jake was with his parents, so they left to go show people to their seats and sit down, respectively. Then Melanie showed up, and that was exciting. I still talk to Melanie on a pretty regular basis, so we just goofed off and waited for Andrew, the other former chorister we were sitting with. He gave us a pretty skillful double-hug when he showed up, and we all went in.  The concert was fantastic, of course, and afterwards we went to Luigi's, which definitely has the best pizza in the world. Originally I wasn't going to be able to go, because Mom had to pick Dad up someplace else as soon as the concert was over, but Ginny offered to give me a ride back home (even though it's an HOUR DRIVE, for Pete's sake) and then Mom said they could meet her halfway, and so all was right with the world.

It was a really good night. We were loud and full of laughter and stories about college life and the last choir trip they'd been on. Baby Alex protested his nickname of Baby Alex (there are two people named Alex in our group of friends, and he's the younger one), and Caitlin talked about how certain members of the choir none of us had gotten along with were doing. On the ride back with Ginny, we talked about our lives and how her brother steals her breakfast cereal and almost got lost, and promised to keep in touch this semester.

I guess I'm trying to say that I've had enough time off from high school, and I think I'm ready to renew these old friendships. That's what I learned over my Christmas break.