Chasing Orchid: Bittersweet Goodbye

As the readers know if they’ve been keeping up on the blog, I’m about to embark on the next stage of my life. As excited as I am about it, it’s also bittersweet for me. I’ve lived in this city for 20 plus years of my life, with a side jaunt living in St. Louis for a few years. I’ve made some really great friends in my hometown. My best friend of almost 24 years has been with me through it all.

We moved back to our hometown in the same year and rejoiced in the fact that we could see each other whenever we wanted. However, even the best laid plans can go to shit when one isn’t paying attention. Somehow our lives got so busy that we never got around to seeing each other as much as we would have liked. But despite that, we always manage to be around when the other needs support.

It’s not that I won’t miss my other friends, but she is the one I will miss the most. Even though she can’t stand to say goodbye, she’s always encouraged me to do what makes me happy, even if it means only seeing me once a year (if we’re lucky). It was during the last two weekends it really hit me that I wasn’t going to see her on a regular basis.

Memorial day weekend we went down to her beach cottage to just get away from the city and spend some time together. It’s amazing how much fun the two of us can have doing the simple things. We decided to go kayaking and enjoy the day. While we had a blast doing just that, the funniest thing that we’ll remember is when we finally finished our 12 mile paddle.

We couldn’t figure out why in the hell we had so much trouble kayaking back until we got out of the water and realized the plug was missing. We’d been slowly filling up the kayak with water! We laughed at our stupidity (typical of the two of us when we’re together) and proceeded to haul the damn thing uphill in the sand.

We were both extremely tired and literally crawled up the dune (which was sprinkled with poison ivy) pushing and pulling the two person, fiberglass kayak to the top. It didn’t help that we were laughing so hard we had to stop every few feet. But it’s those little things, like constant laughter, that make saying goodbye so hard. No matter our differences, we always manage to laugh.

The weekend after, we went back to the beach cottage to throw a 35th anniversary party for her parents (my surrogate parents). Afterwards a bunch of us stayed, talking and drinking. By this time we were all pretty buzzed and she was flat out drunk. But true to form, as I walked outside to talk to her she started bawling. This of course didn’t help my state of mind. However, between sobs, we managed to laugh too.

I don’t know about all of you, but I find it pretty special when I can find a friend I’m able to laugh and cry with in the same breath. I’m sure everyone that remained at the party thought we were both nuts. But we didn’t care. We’ve never really cared about what other people think.

I doubt I’ll ever encounter another person like her, because she is a one and only. And no matter what happens, where we go, or where we ultimately end up, I’m sure we’ll always remain friends.

All I have left to say is this….she damn well better come visit me! *wiping a tear and laughing*