My mother gained custody of me when I was 7
years old, going on 8. I spent two years with her and moved back in with my
grandparents; this is no secret. I lived with my grandparents from 4th
grade all the way through high school graduation, until I left for the
military. I even lived with them again after separating from the Air Force and
while my little family was homeless after our first apartment as civilians.
Living
with my mother was difficult for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons
was my lack of friends. At any given time, I had one good friend, maybe a second not-so-good friend. This carried
over to 4th grade, after I’d moved back in with my grandparents; I
had two friends at Roy Elementary and one of them was a bitch. Their names were
Rose and Kaydee, in order of importance.
Rose
was a phenomenal friend; I loved everything about her. She was kind,
thoughtful, and friendly; we played with our Barbies together and talked about school
and our bullies and crushes. My memory isn’t the best for specifics, but it’s
as they say: People will forget what you said to them, but will never forget
how you made them feel. Rose made me feel included.
I will never in all my life forget that.
After
6th grade, Rose moved to Illinois. For a while, we wrote each other,
back and forth. Then, one day, my letter came back with a “Return to Sender”
stamp on it. I tried again and again, each time in vain, to get the letter to
the address I had for her. Every time, it came back, until I finally gave up
and assumed defeat. That is, until I made a Facebook account.
It
occurred to me that social media could be used to find Rose. I remembered that
she’d liked being on the computer as much as I’d liked it, when we were kids.
Neither of us were able to spend as much time as we wanted to on our respective
household computers. I thought, If I have
a Facebook account, maybe Rose does, too! And so, I searched for her.
Nothing
came up. I searched again. Still nothing.
Over
the years, I searched for her less often, but none of my search results
resembled the friend I’d had.
Until today.
Today,
I typed her full name into the search bar during my lunch break. I was on my
phone and I don’t know why, but I suddenly figured, “I’m gonna look for Rose,
again. See what happens.” And there she
was! The first result in my search was her!
It
has been a long time since I’ve felt such elation. Immediately, I sent her a
friend request and a message—a rather enthusiastic
message—and told two of my friends what had just happened, since I was in
conversation with them at the time. I sent another message shortly thereafter,
upon realizing that perhaps the first one might have come across a little creepily.
At
this time, I await a response. I don’t know if or when she will get back to me,
but at least now I know I can hope.
Now I know that my friend is out there, still in Illinois, possibly working in
a library, and I have done my part in finding her. My hopes are that we can
reconnect; she was my best friend and we’d both agreed that our only other
friend, whom we shared, wasn’t much of a friend at all.
Now
I can rest more easily and perhaps with a smile in my heart, knowing that she
grew up and is still out there. If we reconnect and our friendship is still
strong, I sincerely hope to visit her, perhaps in June when we go to Indiana.
For
this reason, as well as the fact that I received my paycheck and learned that I
will be posted as close to home as is possible within my client’s properties,
today was green! I haven’t had such a
green day in so long, I’d forgotten what it was like to feel so good. First, I
found Rose. Then, I learned that I’ll be posted close to home. Then, I received
my paycheck. Then, I received a
Labyrinth T-shirt and Horcrux socks from Loot Crate!
I
live in Federal Way, Washington. Nearby cities include Kent and Auburn, both of
which have stations attached to the client to which I’m assigned through my
employer. The area is called “King,” while the area the rest of my class is
going to is called “Paul” and includes Seattle and some areas nearby. The fact
that I was assigned to the King section is not only extremely lucky for me, it’s
extremely rare!
This
information came from the man who first interviewed me for the company for
which I now work. He entered the classroom, spoke with the instructor for a
while, and then pulled me into an office to ask me about the breathing
difficulty I’d had, the other day. I told him that I don’t think it will be a
problem, that I think I’ll be able to wear the ballistics vest for 12 hours
without incident and I don’t know why I’d been short of breath. He then told
me, first, that he almost never assigns people to the King area; he then
informed me that he’d placed me
there! Happy news! I grinned from ear to ear, to be repeated upon my arrival
home…
Overall, today was the greenest day
I’ve had in a long time. Finding my
old friend, learning my posts-to-be, the arrival of my paycheck, the Loot Crate
merchandise… I can sleep well tonight, I think, and it’s the weekend! I don’t
even have to get up as early as usual!
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