My Friend…

It is my pleasure to introduce you to my enigmatic friend Greg.

Greg has been through many hardships and challenges that have helped shape him into an understanding and caring human being that does not take things for granted.

One of the very first memories I have of Greg is from an acting class we took in college. At the time, the class was working on Shakespeare scenes. Greg and his scene partner were about to perform, but my bladder could not wait any longer. I ran to the bathroom and when I quietly came back in to watch their scene, I was stunned. Not because it was good. It was the worst acting I had seen anywhere! They were just standing on stage facing each other, perfectly still except for their mouths reciting the lines to each other, back and forth with no feeling at all whatsoever. I looked around the classroom expecting everyone else to be as appalled as I was, but no one else seemed bothered. When the scene was over I expected our usually demanding professor to rip them a new one, but she did no such thing. Instead she said, “Well done” and asked them to continue. WTF?! So they started the scene again, but this time it was good.  Apparently, what I witnessed was just a warm up exercise they were asked to do before actually performing the scene.

Greg is so many wonderful things. He’s smart, funny, talented, interesting, compassionate and so much more. I will never run out of things to say to him and I will never tire of listening to what he has to say. What we have is more than friendship; it is a deep understanding and appreciation for each other, a belief that we were meant to come together, that we are meant to love each other, that we are better because of each other.

Now, I will be brutally honest. Greg is not perfect and neither am I. We have hurt each other. He has broken my heart a couple of times in ways that hurt more than being heartbroken romantically because in romantic relationships I knew I was taking a chance, but with Greg I didn’t see it coming. Some people wrong you and you should let go of them because they are toxic in your life; other people are flawed, make mistakes, apologize, and should be given another chance. I count myself lucky to have made the right choice where Greg is concerned, my life without him would be lacking.

This is the part where I break the fourth wall and speak directly to Greg…

Greg,

I love you. No more, no less.

As much as I love you, sometimes I want to grab you by the shoulders and shake some sense into you. You are wise about so many things, but when it comes to yourself you can be so dumb.

YOU ARE ENOUGH. YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ENOUGH.

Every time you put yourself down… I want you to hear my voice saying, “Quit talking smack about my friend!”

And friend, thank you for always making me laugh. I love your beautiful face and your wonderful sense of humor.

Your friend for life,

Not-so-Unknown-to-you Mami

 

This post is part of a series celebrating friendship. If you missed what Greg had to say about me, you can read it here. Come back next week on Monday and Tuesday for more of this series. Most importantly, don’t forget to honor your friends.