Reminded of my Youth

This past weekend, as my friend, Gar, and I made our way down to South Texas, we passed right by the place where it all began--Baylor University, where we met in tennis class nearly twenty years ago.

I was very shy back then--it was really an accomplishment for me to go out of my way to introduce myself to Gar in the dorm hallways when I ran into him later. He said the same thing--he was so focused on classes (we were both pre-Med) that he didn't really worry about making friends.

A series of wacky events occurred, which caused Gar and me to become roommates in the dorm. In no particular order, here are some of the events:

• One of my original roommates was super-rich--his parents ran a business which supplied all the professional sports teams in the country. He had a brand-new car and as much money and stuff as he could want.

• The other roommate was super-poor. His parents were missionaries and they lived in a house that they made themselves or something. This guy worshipped the super-rich guy, laughing at all his jokes, etc..

• Turns out, I was poorer than the super-poor guy. He seemed to really enjoy that.

• Both of these roommates would go out drinking into the wee hours of the morning, and come back to the room hammered. They were business majors, so they didn't really need to study too hard.

• I ended up getting into a fistfight with the super-poor guy. It was the last actual fight I've been in, and I completely demolished the guy. He kept getting up and I kept knocking him down. It ended when I knocked him down, picked up his bike, which was in the room, and threw it on top of him. I still kind of feel bad about that whole thing.

• I moved out and got a new roommate who ended up being gay. For the rest of my life, I will never understand how this guy had beautiful women throwing themselves on the ground in front of him left and right. He even had girlfriends and everything.

• The gay thing came out when he propositioned a Korean guy named Jimmy, who lived on our floor and EVERYONE thought was gay. Apparently not. We had a group of about 12 guys who would go out for dinner at the dining hall, and one night Jimmy yelled across the table, "Dude--you're roommate is gay! He came on to me!" It was true, and my roommate moved out that night.

• So, Gar moved in. We were the brokest kids in the whole University, and we used to save up a dollar or so every once in a while, and we would walk across the street to the gas station and grab a chocolate milk on Friday night, take it back to the dorm, and hang out. That was our party scene in college for a whole year.

As we drove this weekend, Gar and I talked about all the things that sprang from our friendship over the years, and how the things that we struggled with brought out the best in us later on. Don't get me wrong, it would have been nice to be super-rich, etc., but it was good to find a true friend--and I'm damn sure that he didn't hang out with me for my money. How many friends do I still know from back then? Only one.

As we passed by our old school, we pulled off the road and into the gas station across the street from our old dorm. The dorm is the same--it looks like it should be condemned, but the gas station is shiny and new, having been redone. Moved on to better things--a lot like Gar and me.

We went inside and bought two bottles of chocolate milk, and had a nice laugh as we drove away.