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