First of all, I LOVE my dad! This one is a given. When I still lived at home, we definetly had hard times and didn't see eye to eye, but since my senior year it's been getting better and better. Today we were down in the cafeteria, having more gosh awful food (eggplant, mushroom, rice, steamed bread and "chicken" that was more fat and arteries than anything else) when good ol' Tim came walking over with ILP mail. Low and behold, I had something today! WOOHOO! It's always exciting to get something and feel like we're still connected to America in some small way. I was even more excited when I saw that it was from my dad: a card for Thanksgiving! It was awesome and it was such a needed boost for today! He said he was sorry because it wouldn't get to me by Thanksgiving, but the surprise of it made it that much better. I loved it! What girl doesn't like to hear her dad say that he's proud of her and glad that she's his daughter? :)
Then tonight, One Tree Hill marathon ended for the night and I thought I'd hurry and check for an expected email (BOO DIXIE!) before I went to bed. Even better than a school email, I got a totally unexpected one from an old friend! I don't know if anybody really reads this besides my family, but I know at least he still does so for the sake of "privacy" we'll call him Fred.
I met Fred a little while ago. We DEFINETLY got off on the wrong foot and remained that way for about a year! It's a really long story how we met, and why we had negative feelings towards each other before meeting, but let's just say that feelings were hurt on both ends within the first 20 minutes of "Hi." However, about a year ago we started to fix things. He saw me driving down Canyon Road and sent me a semi-sarcastic text to tease me and say hi. That little effort started it all.
Since then, we have become a lot closer. Back in April, we went to dinner and talked about the type of people we wanted to be, where we wanted to go in life, what we wanted in life etc. I'll never forget what he said. "I'm only 22 but I feel like my life is so screwed up. I'm no where near the person I want to be." That really hit me because in some ways I felt the exact same. I didn't say anything then, but it was because of my good friend "Fred" that I made some changes in my own life. I haven't seen him or talked to him since I left for China.
I have trust issues with people. On many different levels in fact. When people say that they want to change, (depending on WHAT they're changing) I have a hard time believing them because my history and past experiences teaches me that people never REALLY change. However tonight Fred proved me wrong. Apparently after our dinner that day, Fred really did make a huge change. He gave up drinking. He gave up drugs. He gave up partying. He gave up talking bad about people. He gave up picking fights. He pretty much gave up every negative thing about himself, that he had said before he didn't like.
On top of all that, he's getting baptized next week! I could not be more excited for him! I love hearing how he's changed just through the email, I can't wait to see for real when I get home! So thank you Fred for being such a good example. Thank you for being a good friend. And thank you for proving me wrong and showing me that you can always change no matter what, as long as you really want to! (And thanks for making me laugh with all the other stories! ;) Ever heard that song "Some People Change" by Montgomery Gentry? Yea it's a GREAT one! And now I'm starting to believe it!
Home in 2 weeks! WOOOOHOOOOO!
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