Sephy’s Platzish

This is one of those things that, prior to starting on the anti-depressants, I don’t think I’d have seen myself doing. Back then, if I was in the same position, I’d try to do anything to get out of talking to old friends from High School, or to talk to them for as short of a time as possible before pulling myself away to do something else.

However, a couple of weeks ago, I was at an event at my church - basically a fund raiser meal for the church itself that has been going on for a few years now - and while I was getting my meal, I spotted my friend from High School helping out in the kitchen.

A bit of history is probably necessary here - she actually grew up in a different town to me, but we wound up going to the same middle and high schools after her family moved to my town. We then were a part of the marching band and did a heck of a lot of stuff together, including going to band camp one week, and the trips to Washington and California. Then, after we graduated, we kept in contact by email, and I still can’t forget the time when we chatted on the phone about a couple of our other friends who were in a relationship. She told me that I had to be sitting down for the news, and it turned out that there was something about a proposal between the two of them. Of course, the hilarity is that I thought the thing I was going to be told was that she had gotten pregnant. Of course, the girl we were talking about was kind of a prude, sort of, but not really.

Trust me, the stories I have are really good, and the memories are all good as well.

Although she hadn’t gone to the same church (or for that matter, was a member of the same denomination), she was now involved after marrying one of our members, whom she had met while we all were in High School. But I digress.

As I was walking through the line, she called me out and I responded; she asked me where my “tech vest o-meter” was, and I said that I hadn’t worn them for a long time now; which is true, I think they’re in my “keep for later” closet, I’m not even sure anymore… Anyway, the basic pleasantries were exchanged and we (my mother and I) went to eat our meals.

A little while later, as we were up in the main part of the church waiting for a gospel music concert to start, I heard my friend (she has a voice that can carry ) out in the lobby. At first, I had the “old” thoughts of “please don’t attract attention to me” in my mind, but then I decided that I’d go do something else, which is where this story takes a definite turn for the better.

I go into the lobby and as soon as I’m down there, I’m cornered right away. I didn’t try to get out of it and say that I was going to do something else, I decided that I’d start to talk about myself. Now, she knows that I never got my license when I was still in school, so that was the first thing that I mentioned, and I did it in quite the good way. I said “I have something”, went for my wallet, opened it and showed off the license.

That led to the first hug. Now, I’m not a hugging person; it’s just something that I wasn’t brought up to do, but I am always willing to accept one when offered. Of course, the suggestion was brought up that she’d have to find me a “pimp mobile”, and then I suggested a turbo car, but was reminded that Turbo could equal speeding tickets down the track.

Then we got into talking about how I had my orange “can you see me now?” shirt for the walking, and then showed my shoes off, which led to another moment of happiness that I was looking for fashion. Not only the fashion, but considering that the shoes I wear now only cost $27, also a bargain hunter.

I then mentioned that I had a DVD collection, being clear that the DVDs weren’t all of movies, but of things I’ve acquired through cheap means, however that I had watched movies. Again, for her, to see me actually caring about pop culture was a shock which led to another hug (can you tell that this is in her style? ).

The other thing that I was praised about (due to shock) was that I actually had a mobile phone; during school, I didn’t think that they were necessary, but in 2004, I decided that I’d get one, which is another story in itself, which ends in me being glad I did go with the phone plan I did.

In the end, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, but this is one of those experiences that will stick in my mind - for all the right reasons. The best part is that afterwards, my mom mentioned to me that they had talked and my friend mentioned that I had changed a lot and that the changes were really good. Can I just say that I’m extremely proud of myself for that?