It only takes one.

Once upon a time, there was a lovely, optimistic, humorous and intelligent girl. She was also blonde. Yes, this actually is a true story. She's still alive. You could facebook stalk her or read her blog.

This gal is not the love of my life. For the sake of writing about her, we'll just say she's Sassy. So Sassy and I met when I was in 8th grade at an LDS Multi-Stake youth dance. I asked her to dance, and she said sure and we had a lovely time. She being cute, and I being awkward, and 6 months/1 grade younger, enjoyed this thoroughly. Over time we became better and better friends. I'd go see her shows because she was a talented singer, and we did all kinds of fun stuff. One year, this dear friend of mine, who went to a different high school, and I got to talking about the drama involved with High School Proms. She had heard through the grapevine that someone was going to ask her, and he didn't, and then someone else, who she liked, and HE didn't. So with my Sassy friend rather upset, I decided that if she didn't get asked I'd take her on a date. She said that sounded like a good plan and was way cheerful about it. So the day rolled around and she had no prom date. I couldn't drive at this point, so I tried to get anyone I knew who could go with me to drive. I had the will. I had the wallet. But it didn't seem like it would pan out. So I then talked to my mom about the situation. She said, "Well, why don't you just ask her to prom?" Well. I mean. You know. I could, right? So mom and I talked about it, and she suggested I ask if she had a dress and was willing to drive that we go for it. I said it was a deal, so I called Sassy and our conversation went a little like this:

"Hey Sassy!"

"Hey Scotty! How are you?"

"I'm doing well. So, I wanted to talk about our date today. If you want to say no, we can do something else, but I want to pitch it to you."

"Ok, What's up?"
"I couldn't find anyone to double with, but if you have a dress and are able to drive, would you like to go to prom with me?"

She gladly accepted. She was even at the mall getting jewlery, and so she pulled it all together really quickly. She looked fantastic, and we went to Tucanos (because it is amazing), and we got lost, and listened to weird al, and did all kinds of fun stuff.We never actually made it to the dance, but she and I danced in the pretty place that was NEAR the dance. She loved driving, and gloated about it a fair amount. She even ran a red light. She's kind of a reckless person. Ok, so not really, but she did spend the rest of the drive home being really worried about how she could have killed me. Easily one of the top-5 dates I've been on without the love of my life.

So that was all well and good. It seemed to me as though fate had aligned well for me, and that due to my excellence and our friendship she'd start having things go her way. Again, I was 16, and put a lot more significance into things than maybe I should.

However, a couple weeks later, tragedy struck. This sweet belle lost the most important man in her life, her Dad, later that month. My heart ached for her. I had called her the night it happened to see if she wanted to go hang out, and she told me about her loss. I didn't know what to do. I just went upstairs, and then just broke down and cried. It was so sad, and so unjust. It wasn't even me suffering. Through that week, as she later told me, people kept prying and asking and trying to figure things out as if they somehow deserved to know intimately the pain of this girl. As if by them knowing they could help her. Sometimes it seems like the sweethearts always get picked on the most. She resented that, and was glad I never asked. I was just there. To this day, all I know is that she's happy that he looks down on her, and she thinks about him every day.

Well this girl has continued to go on and to conquer. As I stated before, we never fell in love. We maybe crushed some (I mean, I am me after all) and we became wonderful friends, but she has done more wonderful things. She found love at a JuCo, and has a beautiful little girl. She's seemingly faced opposition every step of the way, but she is optimistic, and she pushes through. She's been a hugely positive example to me of being a good friend and rolling with the punches. So, my tribute today is to a friend who I call "Sassy."

-Scotty

Some People Make You Laugh

As a Sophomore in High School, I competed for the second time in the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Lots of things came from this experience. One of them was a friend. This friend really only did Drama for a year, which was a shame, and which he later repented of. He didn't crave the stage like I do, and had other talents which have propelled him to greater things.

I guess I have to take a step back. This friend and I also took a Drama class in Jr. High together. As we reflect on how long we've been friends, which is up to over 7 years now, we have had the chance to talk about how those we went to school with have changed. It's really nice to have a friend, especially one I work with still, be able to know a lot of my circle of friends, and keep me up to date on them.

Anyway, this experience, albeit brief, is one of my favorites of all time.

This friend and I had finished rehearsing our scene for Drama and were standing outside talking with one another. Since we did wildly hilarious things together like taping him to the wall, or telling all manner of amusing stories, we were laughing about something or another. The thing that made this memory stick above all others was the realization that when guys laugh really hard, they always end with a good long "uhhhhh" sigh. It's a proven fact. Two 15 year olds discovered this, so it's got to be true.

The fun part was that this discovery made us laugh. As we'd start to recover from laughing, we, naturally, would deeply sigh. This process was repeated for no less than half an hour. It had the potential to be a humor vortex from which none would ever escape.

I have so many great things to say about this friend, and surely will write about him again someday, but that's all for now.

With that said, I do have several really good posts coming out soon, so stay tuned. I mean, we could be looking at days instead of months between posts now. This could be big.

:)

A Great Motivator

"I want more. This is publishable, Scott. Really."

This is a direct quote from the facebook of the friend I have to mention today. I've toyed with how to best characterize her. I made one attempt, and, to be quite honest, it wasn't very good. She's a highly dynamic personality. She has the a rich sense of kindness and sensitivity of feelings. On the one hand, she's can be a real straight shooter. My original thought was to talk about how her no-nonsense attitude had been a huge help to me. It has. There were times when I was a full-time LDS Missionary where hearing her voice in my head was exceptionally helpful to me. This friend is not a fan of quitting or quitters. There were days I wanted to quit. I knew, however that she (and others, but I often heard her voice) would have none of it. This chica would have you reach your maximum potential, and not be annoying about it in the process.

She's also not at all a hypocrite. Some people expect you to do big things, but settle for small things themselves. Her life leads a direction that is quite the contrary. This is a girl with a crazy good work ethic, and excellent study habits. Some people get good grades because they're at the right place, taking the right easy classes from the right teacher at the right time. I was kind of one of those people. This girl was a straight A Student who took some of the hardest classes presented to her, and nailed them. Oh, and she graduated early... after skipping a grade. Yessir, at the ripe old age of 17 she was moving on to bigger and better college experiences. For perspective sake, I am going to be 22 in a couple months and have less than a semester under my belt. She's got a 5 year lead on me in that respect.

In addition to the brains we've established, it's also necessary to point out a couple of other characteristics. The first is that she is quicker to forgive than to anger. In the earlier days of our friendship, I was the victim of her wrath from time to time, as she was the victim of mine. Good people sometimes say things they don't mean, but good friends let those things go. I have said things to her that were very hurtful. Things that for months later would haunt me and make me wonder what could have caused those things to slip my lips. However, she forgives. Really quickly. From what she tells me, she can pretty much just take a nap, and *Poof!* the fight is done. How many people can do that? How many WOMEN can do that? As the ever wise Marge Simpson said to her own daughter in a fit of rage, "Don't worry Lisa, you're a woman, you can hold on to that anger forever!" This helped Lisa to be calm at the moment, and save the beat down for a later day. That's kind of the opposite of what this friend's deal is. She lets it go. Maybe it's just because she forgets, but maybe it's just because life has taught her that it's too short to spend time hating anyone.

So, let's add up here. Smart. Motivated. Girl. I have to admit she's occasionally on the spazzy-hilarious side. Speaks her mind. Forgiving. With that said, and with some greater thought than my last attempt, I give you the experience we shared.

On a spring day, earlier this year, this friend consented to go with me to Salt Lake. It was a date, I think. But it wasn't like, you know, that kind of date. It was like, I was going to SLC, wanted to see my missionary trainer, his wife and their baby. She came, and was great conversation the whole time. As usual. She laughs with a Mirth that can light up a room. It can also make passers by think she has had too much to drink. So we had a great time, ate some rice bowls, and ice cream, and it was delightful. The thing that really struck a chord with me is something we talked about on the way home.

She talked about how what she'd thought about studying, and told me how she'd ended up with Elementary Education. That everything pieced together in such a way that this was her destiny. Now that's pretty neat. But that discussion led to another thing, something that is among her greatest ambitions. She wants to be a Mother. She gets what that sacrifice entails. Like most people, she has a mother. She has a good one. One who taught are elementary school. Now I don't know much (and by much I mean anything) of the childhood of my Mrs. Friend's-mom. What I know about the youth of my friend is that she's a great singer (a soloist for a very touching piece by Eric Clapton) actress (placed 2nd in a good sized drama compitition), pianist (thanks for teaching me middle C. It's all grown from there!) , and has ambitions to do many great and marvelous things. She could do anything. She is willing to sacrifice, or just reroute all of those things to be a mother. If every Mom was cut from this kind of fabric, they world would be a better place. This one is for a memory with a future.

-Scotty

The Best Friend at the Start of a New Life

This friend, undoubtedly, is going to be involved in many posts here. He is a blonde hair, blue eyed boy, really a man now, and we share brainwaves. This post is about how we met.

For those who don't know, I went to High School at a place I lovingly refer to as, American Leadership Academy. It's a hell of a school. I love it. It just feels different. There's a dress code that makes everyone look reasonably professional for high schoolers. Currently, there's a milion dollar football field, 2 basketball courts in this k-12 school, a stage that owns a piece of my soul, and it has all the usual things that you'd expect in a school. In September of 2005, That wasn't the case. Our school lacked a lot of novel things like, you know. Grass. We didn't have grass for months. We didn't have ceiling tiles. In fact, the days before school began people came in to volunteer, myself included, to move things like that in. And desks. And hang white boards. There were cranes at the school, and most of the windows weren't fully sealed. Suffice it to say, it was unique to start from.

The cast of characters was also pretty different. Some kids were like me. I was a decent kid, and got less than stellar grades. Nothing horrible, but my parents didn't approve of C's and B's when I could get A's. They looked at ALA (short for American Leadership Academy, and an acronym you'd better get used to) as a fresh start. I had a few great friends, and a girl that I had a HUGE crush on. Those things weren't calculated in when my parents told me I was going there. So I wasn't thrilled about wearing Khaki's and polos every day. That was one type.

Another group was kids who had been home-schooled, or were otherwise socially awkward. ALA has never had a graduating class bigger than 93. Mine was 57 in 2008. The year in question gave us a whopping 12 Alumni. For these kids, it was a way for their parents to allow them to come to a good school that didn't have a bad name, or lots of questionable kids, because, hey, there weren't a lot of kids. So for those of you at home, we have kids who don't want to be there, kids who have never been to a public school (Charter Schools > Public schools. Charter schools =/= Private Schools.) and then the third group.

This is akin to the first group, only with a bit more edge. The last group consists of kids who were on their last chance. There was a considerable volume (for a school with 100 kids in it) of kids who had already been expelled from other schools. The starting line up at the beginning changed drastically over the weeks, months, and years ahead. However, with that background, I can now introduce my Ayrian friend.

There was an English teacher who was widely regarded as borderline insane. He's brilliant, just rather unorthodox. It was in this class that we met. We talked, and were cordial. He was friends with the pretty new girl I met. This pretty girl would often tell the friend in question that he could learn Chivalry lessons from me. This was hardly the truth, but we played with it a lot. the guy and I would make dramatic scenes of opening doors, and him struggling to do so. Bursting into applause for small acts of gentlemanly excellence. He got so good under my tutelage that by the end of the year, I used him to ask a girl to prom for me. He waltzed right into her Dance class (fitting, right?) and gave her a dozen roses. It was very cool. Here's the moment I'll always remember though.

We built tables. To this day, there are plastic picnic tables outside of the school. Like I had mentioned before, we didn't have anywhere to sit. Everything was dirt, and everything else was concrete. We couldn't, (or maybe just couldn't bring ourselves to) eat inside during the late summer. However, on one of these early days of school (had to be the first two weeks because the pretty new girl left to her old school after that) we saw the tables. They were in card board boxes with those big plastic straps. We managed to get a few of them out of the boxes, and just put them together with the instructions in the box, and the tools that they included. In retrospect, it was highly awesome of the boxes to come with their own tools. We had a Regal Throne for the pretty girl to sit on, which, of course, added to the score in my friend's Chivalry count. We built something together, and it has lasted for six years.

That's my defining moment for to you today.

This Blog

I've been blessed with the best friends in the world. I think about you all the time. I think about how good you, and sometimes how stupid you (and I) are, and always how much we laugh. If you are reading this, you probably hear me laugh a lot. The love of my life tells me she loves my laugh. I tell her if she didn't, she would leave me. That's true.

So this blog is going to be just like a journal of sorts. I'm going to refrain from using names as much as possible. If you have lost faith that there are good people in this world, or if you've forgotten how friendships start, hopefully this will help. I'm speaking to my future self here, too. So there isn't really a rhyme or reason to this, I just want to talk about you.

Enjoy.