and a brother is born for a time of adversity."
-Proverbs 17:17
I am not a partier. I don't drink, truly get overwhelmed at mass amounts of people sharing my space, and I usually try to go to bed about 9 o'clock each night. Not a partier.
So when I say "Dudes Night" I mean, I met up with a bunch of really good buddies from high school and went to...wait for it... Oregano's for dinner. Wild and out of control, I know.
Cassie wrote about the importance of having close girlfriends as a woman, and I am here to write about having good guy friends as a dude.
Lucky for me, I have stayed in relatively close contact with a good group of individuals from high school. It's obviously easier for me as I still live in my hometown where I graduated. But, that is not to say that I haven't made good friends since then either. Specifically, the guys from last night were close to me because of track and field. I was a distance athlete in high school, running the 800m, 1600m(mile) and 3200m. My senior year, there were five of us all running well in the 800m race. All season we were switching up the order and trying new rotations in the 4x800m relay. We were actually doing quite well in the state as far as our time was concerned. During the regionals race, our coach told myself and another runner, Kaleb, that the person to finish first between the two of us would earn the last spot on the relay team for the state championships. After a hard fought and truly fun 800m race, Kaleb came out on top by about two seconds. I wasn't in the least angry or bitter about missing out on racing in state because over the course of the season, and the past four years of running together, I was proud of him for making it.
The next day, our 4x8 team won the regional title and to put the cherry on top, the boy's team won the regional team title as well.
Fast forward to the state championships. I was the alternate for the team, but didn't even bring my track spikes (shoes) because I knew that this was the team that had to run the race. I was just as nervous as they were before the race and when the gun went off to signal the start, I was screaming as loud as I could. I almost lost my voice. When Rick, our last leg of the relay, received the baton, we had a lead that looked pretty hard to catch. We were gonna win the state title.
We did win the state title and set a school record in the process. My coach decided it appropriate to give me a medal for the win as well, despite not running a step in the race, because he knew the friendship we had all forged and the whole season of work we had put in to get to that point. It meant a lot to me to be included on that team with those guys.
Three years later, one of the guys who set the record and won the state championship, did it again his senior year with a new crew of guys.
We started a tradition in high school of getting together for Oregano's with not only the guys from that team, but with guys who mean a lot to us and also ran with us in high school.
Currently, we are all different ages and at different times in our lives. Two are married, one is in the navy, one has a sweet baby girl, the guy who won state twice, three years apart, still runs for Northern Arizona University and has become one of the best runners in the country, one is finishing nursing school, one is recently home from his mission. But, even after six years from that race, we still can get together and laugh and have a good time because we forged a care for each other that is more than just a memory of a great state championship.
Balance in life is important. Work and play, health and doughnuts, friends and family. Sometimes it is about nothing more than lifting your spirit with a few guys that you have a good friendship with.
The moral is, keep your friendships and nurture them. It's important to have a group of like minded friends who can always give you uplifting memories from time to time.
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