STAY OFF THE GRASS !!!!!

Lip Sync Rockers

Life is strange. The how's and why's, the construction of what happens when. How it decides who you'll know forever. And who you're only meant to know for a short period of time. One has to believe that every person that comes into our lives, is brought there for a reason. Even the short timers. The people who briefly flit in and out. Sometimes, those are the people who leave the most lasting impressions.

Short timers. They burst into your life in such a way, leaving such an indention in time, that no matter how many years may pass, you will never completely forget them.  The memory of them may wash and fade into a blur, but at any given time, they will appear as a bright flash of light. A reminder of a minute, a day, or a year, long ago, that meant the world to you.

Pee Wee Football

Life time friends, now that, is that most strange occurrence of them all. Have you ever stopped to think, just what kind of magical potion it takes to make a forever friendship work?  All the things that can happen that will threaten to break the ties? Growing up and changing is probably the biggest culprit. Changing and morphing into totally different people. Besides all the every day factors that will come into play. Girls, boys, interests, sports, school, arguments, fights, hurt feelings, angry words, and well life, just life in general.

I'm not sure if Zachary has any of those short timer friends. Those are generally people that no one talks about out loud. They're private friends for all sorts of reasons. Special reasons more times than not. Reasons that you keep close to your heart and don't feel the need to discuss with anyone else.  Because other people aren't going to really understand that place in time for you. They'll nod their heads and listen, but they won't get the magnitude. It's hard to put into words why, but they just won't.

Oh Brother..Lip Sync

He has plenty of friends he has gone to school with all of his life. Played sports with, football basketball and baseball. Some of these boys, like Jared Whiddon and others, that even though they are a grade or so apart, they have still experienced the good times of winning and somber times of losing.

Zachary does however, have one particular life long friend. This young man has been Zachary's best bud since they were three years old. Dustin Watson. They learned to write numbers together, learned their colors, how to write their names, discovered little girls, Pee Wee football, bikes and custom made skateboards.  Years of  Lip Sync contests..always performing together. There is probably nothing these two young men don't know about one another. They know each others most intimate secrets, thoughts and desires. Now they are discovering dating, football, basketball, summer jobs, summer nights at the river, being Juniors in school, driving freedom, being home by curfew and teenage heartache.

Every time these two boys are together I alternately smile and worry. Because as boys who have known each other forever will do, they think up things to try out. They're bored, so they invent their own fun. Digging up poles at the river, doing spin outs in the sand, throwing fireworks into gutters, and making man-made ropes to climb in and out of windows while parents are sleeping. Ignoring signs....

Firework Conniving

And now they are dating. Fumbling their way through the dark, trying to figure out girls and all that it means. Which is everything. Girls are such a mystery. I'm a female, and even I know and recognize that. They're hot then they're cold. They like you and they don't. They're laughing then crying. They're sassy and sweet. These boys are going to bowling alleys' and meeting girls outside of their own immediate circle. Which is a small one...their own circle is very small.  They are bravely talking to girls who have not known them all of their lives and who could very well, not care anything about knowing them for even another minute. But they are doing it. Together. These two best friends. Finding their way through life. This stage, and then will come another. And hopefully, another.

I hope I am able to see these boys together through college, marriages, and first born children.  I want to be able to picture these two boys summer time grilling, talking about their jobs, and chasing babies around the back yard. And some day, watching their own children playing Tiny Mites Football, with pads underneath their uniforms bigger than their little bodies.

This is a good time in their lives. I wonder if they ever stop and look back and understand what a remarkable following they have built with one another. Or I wonder, if you have to get my age, to appreciate what you used to have? Either way, life has been so good to these boys. I hope three years old til sixteen years old turns into three to sixty. Just think of the stories they'll have to tell then!

copyright © 2011 Michelle Mount Mims