365 Days of Love. Day 45

I graduated high school in December and commenced classes at Oklahoma Wesleyan University in January. I had a few friends already attending classes at OWU so I settled in to college life relatively easily. Just prior to my arrival, my high school track coach started coaching at OWU so without much consideration, I joined the track team.

On the first day of practice, I met Stephanie. Immediately, I was envious of her long legs, wishing they were connected to my torso, wishing they would propel me around the track for 2400 meters. Stephanie was a sprinter and jumper and I was distance runner so the only part of our respective practices that overlapped was the whole team warm up. In those mile jogs and 20 minutes of stretching, Steph and I would strike friendly conversation with each other.

I admired how calm she was and how sweet she was to everyone. Her thoughts were conveyed in softly spoken words. She approached every situation with peace, even if it wasn’t an innately peaceful situation.

One night, Steph and I ended up at a mutual friend’s house. Both of accompanied guests and were unfamiliar with a majority of the other people there. We settled in next to each other on a soft couch, worlds different than the campus furniture we were used to, and pretended to be really into the soccer game on television. Soon, we started talking and soon after that, I felt like we were far more than teammates, we were friends.

After that night, Steph and I were near inseparable. We sat next to each other in algebra, jogged slowly at track practice to make our conversation-filled warm ups last longer, shared jars of peanut butter at track meets and challenged each other to biscuit eating contests at post meet dinners at Cracker Barrel.

We failed our first ever college Algebra test and spent the following weeknights in the library studying. We would have sleepovers that much mimicked my sleepovers in middle school, nail painting, giggling over boys, popcorn consumption, and movies that were seen but not heard over our incessant conversation. In everything we did, Steph invited an air of peacefulness and laughter.

At the end of the semester, I left Oklahoma Wesleyan for good, but Stephanie and I remained close friends. The summer after our first semester at OWU, Steph started dating our friend Lance and they got engaged on December 21^st, my birthday. Steph asked me to be a bridesmaid in their June wedding and I honorably accepted.

In November of 2008, I was living in Atlanta and I had just broken up with my first serious boyfriend. I found it impossible to eat and my constant crying was becoming worrisome to my friends. Through Facebook, I found out Steph and her family were Georgia bound for Thanksgiving. I called her immediately and minutes into our conversation, we had plans to reunite at her aunt’s house for my favorite American holiday. I left Steph and her family that day renewed, pieces of my fused by the company I was in.

In January of this year, I was traveling back to Texas and stopped in Tulsa for the night to stay with Steph and Lance. Although it had been years since I’d seen them, the peace they welcomed me with created the illusion of visiting close family members.

Stephanie and I talk infrequently and we see each other only when our fate’s briefly align, but each communion is a continuation of the last, energized by the innate peacefulness that engulfs our friendship.

Steph has taught me that loving is escorting a spirit of peacefulness, in every friendship, in all situations, with all people.