The chosen few. You know! The friends that you can go weeks, months, or even years without seeing, but when you all get together, it seems like no time has passed since your last congregation? Yeah, I have that group, too.
If you know anything about me, you know that Mississippi Governor's School has had an enormous impact on my life. My summers revolve around it, and I try to use the experience to calibrate my soul. I am able to be myself at MGS, and in the process, I am able to make true, lifelong friendships in a matter of weeks--the kind of friendships that are so pure and so concentrated that the bonds are made in less than three weeks and would take a lifetime to sever.
I spent this weekend with some of the most amazing people on this planet, all of whom I met while working at the wonderful institution that is MGS. We like to all get together whenever we can, which typically means major holidays when we can get off of work or out of school. And this weekend, a bunch of us got together for a fun- and relaxation-filled weekend at Holmes County State Park in Durant, MS.
The weekend consisted of the following:
1. Laughing
2. Story-telling
3. Political/Religious Discussions
4. Sleeping
5. Lounging out in the hammock
6. Floating in the lake
7. Laughing
8. Enjoying each other's company
9. Laughing
Yeah. We're good friends. I mean, who else can you have religious and political discussions with and still have laughter listed three times on the list?!
Let's focus on number 6 for a minute. (Oh, by the way, 6 is a perfect number. During the weekend, Sean and I tried to find all of the perfect numbers out of the first ~30 positive integers. We won.)
So, JJ brought this kick ass inflatable raft to the reunion. It looks like a mini white-water raft for two people. On Saturday, we took a cross-lake voyage to classrooms and porch-swings on the other side. After we finished, Abigail and Megan took the raft for a spin. Then, it was taken inside to slowly deflate in the cabin for the rest of the night.
Being a boat/water enthusiast, it hurt my soul to see the poor thing deflated in front of the fireplace, so on Sunday, I pumped that baby back up and hauled her down to the pier. Sean met me on the dock, and we both hopped in for an adventure. I hadn't anticipated was Sean's accompaniment because he had been busy doing homework all morning, so I only brought one oar down to the water; the other was still in the cabin with the "Extreme Couponing" quantity of cookies. So, off we go, out into the open water with one oar and a steady, 15 MPH north-wind.
You know what happens when you only have one oar and the wind is stronger than the paddling? You go with the wind. And fast. The couple on the '87 Fischer flat-bottom fishing boat knew that, and they taunted us as I tried to paddle against the wind. After giving the paddle to the much stronger and experienced Coastie, as well as trying to paddle with both of my arms, and failing, we decided we'd float to the other end of the lake and climb up the bridge/walkway that crossed the north finger of the lake. Sean and I enjoyed the time out on the water in the wind and sun; we discussed our relationships and told stories about similar situations. We would occasionally stick the paddle in the water to steer us toward the middle of the bridge and not the snake-infested grass on the bank. Neither of us like alligators or snakes, so we weren't going to go looking for them in that grass. No way, Jose.
After 20 minutes, or so, of floating, we finally got to the bridge. I say, "Aw, yeah. We're gonna T-bone this bitch," meaning that I would try to maneuver the boat so that the middle of the boat would t-bone one of the pilings of the bridge to stop us from going any further, especially into the real snaky-looking part of the lake. (That is the only portion of this boating trip that went as planned, by the way) When we smacked the piling, Sean held on to it while I tied a rope to the boat and to the walk-way of the bridge, which was a good 5 feet above the surface of the water. I tried to pull myself up onto the bridge. "This shit ain't workin," I frustratingly and jokingly said to Sean. "Well, I can definitely pull myself up if we can steady the boat," he said. I tied another rope to the stern of the boat and to the walkway of the bridge. Stability, check. We're almost there.
And just let me say right now that those jack-a-loons in the fishing boat never came to check on us! They just sat out there fishing and probably laughing at us.
After much more giggling and cursing, Sean scaled the piling of the bridge and made his way to the top. I followed behind, mimicking his every move. Yay! We're both safe! "Um, that paddle is going to fall out when we try to lift this," Sean said in an informative and concerned tone. "*&^%," I replied. I crawled back over the railing of the bridge and back into the raft to grab the paddle, and then I climbed back up the bridge. We untied the rope from the walkway and hoisted the raft up on top of the bridge. We took a quick breather to reflect on the sanctity of life and to literally catch our breath because, if you recall, we have just performed a feat of strength and maneuverability. We then carried the raft on top of our heads the entire half-mile (not an accurate distance) through the woods back to the cabin...and we didn't take a resting break!
I have been sore all day today because of this, but I'm glad that we went on this adventure. We had some good bonding time in the boat talking about our daily lives, and we overcame obstacles and worked as a team at the same time. Over the past two years, Sean has become my closest friend, but I hadn't really realized how much we are in sync until yesterday.
I wake up every day thanking (in my mind) my mom for making me go to Governor's School. If I hadn't been a scholar in 2007, I'd never have met amazing people like JJ, Lea, Abigail, Megan, and Sean, and I sure wouldn't have a great story like this.
perfect
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