Day Ten: Is There Anything Greater Than Friendship?

Today was tiring. Obviously I've laughed before, but when I'm surrounded by good people, it's impossible to keep a straight face for more than a minute. It's just a great feeling; being able to completely be as weird/silly/strange/goofy as you want and knowing that the other person or people are 100% on the same page as you. The years leading up to my last in high school, I wasn't always on the same page as people. Sometimes, I wasn't even in the same book. And other times? I felt like I was on a completely different shelf. This year is different though. Maybe we're all realizing the finality of our relationships come June. Maybe we're all growing up. Regardless, senior year has brought the class of 2011 much closer than it's been since I've been a member. These are the last few months that we will see each other's faces on a regular basis. These are the last few weeks that we will be able to call each "classmates". These are the last few days of our childhoods together. As we become legal adults and are thrust into this society, these people, the ones you've seen have bad hair days (or years) and braces and grow 6 7 and 8 inches since their peewee days, these people are the ones you find comfort in. No matter how many times so-and-so has stabbed what's-her-face in the back, or how many times the guy gets turned down by the girl (or vice versa), there are never going to be any other people that you can turn to and say "remember when?" Remember when we all stood for Feldy at 8th grade graduation? Remember when every fall varsity team went to playoffs? Remember when we went to D.C.? Remember the championship hockey game freshman year? Remember all the dances, games, grades, projects, finals, nights we didn't sleep? Remember procrastinating our papers and projects until the night before and going on Facebook to see who was up with you, just to find that everyone in our class was up at 3 AM as well? Remember "Take out a piece of PAYPAH!" ?

At the end of this school year, a diploma and robes will mark our survival of high school and our steps out of this chapter of our lives and into the next. Since September 2007, I marked the days down until June 2011, but now I count how many more days I have to laugh until I cry, sing in car rides until I lose my voice, and make as many memories as I possibly can with my friends. When I finally switch my tassel to the left, I know I'll be able to say that senior year was the year. The year that mattered most. The year that I realized there is nothing greater than a good laugh with great friends.

"The universe is made up of stories, not atoms." -Muriel Rukeyser

live simply.