there are certain times in my life that i feel old.
this weekend was one of them.
i flew down to south florida to visit one of my college roommates, alexandra, whom i hadn't seen in 4 years.
since when was i old enough to go 4 years without seeing someone, let alone someone i went to college with??
let's start at the beginning.
i drove up to columbus (cause praise God for southwest airlines even if i have to drive a little) and had a yummo lunch with rachel and finally saw her apartment there (bad friend award). i almost missed my first flight (awesome) and then i had to run through tampa's airport to not miss my second one. i make fun of that person. i did not enjoy being that person.
so i get on my second flight and i'm bummed cause i'm starving but thank goodness for those yummy peanuts. UNTIL the mean pilot said "this ride's gonna be bumpy so we won't have any service during the duration of the flight nor are we going to permit any passengers to move around the aircraft for any reason." it was only a 40 minute flight. and i said the sinner's prayer 56 times. we apparently were flying through a crazy storm and i think the pilot was aiming for clouds. BUT i made it safely to fort lauderdale and had a slightly dramatic embrace with alex that annoyed the people trying to get to the one baggage claim they had like 1393 flights' bags coming into.
here's my weekend summed up: lots of sleep. we napped a LOT. but that's vacation and it's awesome. food. alex is an excellent chef (much like my other chef alex. i realized from strange texts i got that there was some confusion of who i was in florida with. hysterical.) and we ate GOOOOOOD. i have some yummy recipes to try and some vacation pounds to pay my sins for. we went on an airboat tour of the everglades and i held a baby alligator (for about 4 seconds). i went on my first ever fishing trip but i can still say i've never fished. alex caught the first fish of the morning and i was so traumatized that i teared up and spent the next 5 hours on the front of the boat away from the action. :) this peta member is not a candidate for fishing. however when she prepared the kingfish and tuna she caught the next evening, i happily obliged in crushing it. fresh fish = winning.
we went to their church and heard a good message. (my takeaway from that: we preach grace to the lost and duty to the christian. it should be grace for both. good stuff.) went to the beach, went to the pool, watched some movies, went to ikea, slept, and slept and ate and slept. :) true vacation in my eyes. i wanted to do something special for alex and danny (her husband) for letting me crash their place for 4 nights so the last morning, we headed to the beach for a short photo shoot. i can't wait to see how their pictures turned out.
we reminisced a lot. i miss college sometimes. not all the time. but sometimes. i was a completely different person in virginia. and it's not that i've changed from who i was then but i've changed from who i was there. before virginia, on break from virginia, and after virginia, i've been relatively the same person. but when i was at liberty, i wasn't myself. i wasn't that social, i wasn't confident at all, i didn't come away from college with a long list of potential bridesmaids (those are my high school girls), i didn't come away with a husband. i graduated early so i could get out of there. i didn't hate my college experience by any means but i wasn't me there.
the good news is that even in something that wasn't my favorite, i did come away with a few things. one of those being my friendship with alexandra. we picked up 4 years later right where we left off. it was really great to finally hug her and really sad to hug her goodbye knowing it could very well be 4 years until i see her again (scotland is so very far away, al).
ready for a super cliche moment you'll be annoyed with me because of? there's a carrie bradshaw quote that i love: "Maybe our mistakes are what make our fate. Without them, what would shape our lives? Perhaps if we never veered off course, we wouldn't fall in love, or have babies, or be who we are. After all, seasons change. So do cities. People come into your life and people go. But it's comforting to know the ones you love are always in your heart. And if you're very lucky, a plane ride away."
i don't completely think my choice for college was a mistake but i definitely ask myself often why i didn't choose something else. but if i had, i wouldn't have alex. and i wouldn't trade her for the world.
xx
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