My last post about Good Friends vs BEST Friends had a bit of a flaw. I have some amazing BEST guy friends, but they won't necessarily walk into my house, pee with the door open, share a bed with me, criticize my outfit, or anything like that, but that's just kind of a gender barrier. Anyway, I got SUPER lucky with these guys! When I started Cross Country my Sophomore Year just after moving back to St. George, I was worried I would have zero friends on the team. But, there was a group of boys on the team that I had known for quite awhile--some from my ward and some from elementary school. I just kinda clung to them, hoping I'd find at least one person to talk to. I don't know if I actually fit right in, or if I was just an annoying tag along, but either way these guys instantly made me feel welcome, and introduced me to more of their friends. Aside from some of the older girls on the team teasing me about being a huge flirt, it was the perfect situation! In some weird ways, I'm actually a little bit more open with the guys than I am the girls! From being on the team with them, they've seen me exhausted, angry, sweaty, grumpy, hyper, motherly, dirty-minded, injured, sleeping, ecstatic, salty, sick, snoring, lost in thought, laughing hysterically, bawling my eyes out, etc etc! I'm definitely a lot crazier around them than anyone else (poor guys!), but I love them to death and they've all changed my life in their own little ways.
Anyway, aside from my best guy friends from the team, I have a couple of other great guy friends. Among them is Vince Garcia. On May 9, 2012, Vince reported to the MTC to prepare to serve in the Suva, Fiji Mission. I'm usually too prideful to admit this sort of thing, but, in all honesty, I cried for three days straight after he left. It's weird, because it's not really like he was my closest guy friend, but we just had a different friendship. He was the person I could ask to hang out just because I was bored. We usually ended up watching reruns on Netflix, playing pickleball, eating Icees, or going to movies. He was also the person that I always vented all my frustrations, fears, and trials to. He knows about all the guys I've liked in high school and all the drama that came with them, he knows every detail of my immediate and extended family, he knows...well, let's just say he knows quite a bit! Anyway, even though we were born in the same year, he's just always seemed so much older than me. Maybe it's just because he's a grade ahead of me in school. Either way, he just always seemed to have a relaxed, grown-up view of my problems and he always made me feel better in a brotherly way. I also like to think that, in the times he vented to me, I was able to give some helpful advice, too.
In Young Women's, we've always been taught that letters to missionaries need to be short, light, and happy when talking about our own lives, and then give a Spiritual thought and ask about their progress. It's been a lot harder than I thought it would be to write "short, light, and happy" letters to the person I've always vented to. These last couple weeks, I've so badly wanted to write him and talk about how sad I am that my high school running career ended the way it did, how frustrated I am not being able to run, how much I worry about missing high school, how scared I am for college, how hard it is to not have my body functioning normally, and how much I miss him. Every time I write him, I'm tempted to say all these things. But, I've forced myself to stay strong and write happy, Spiritual letters.
This has probably been really good for me, though. I've turned to Christ a lot more lately. Every time these things and other trials in my life creep up on me, I just pray really hard, and I find comfort just like I did whenever I told Vince all these things. Luckily, I've been reminded that my all-time best friend is my Savior.
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