thankful- pt. i- jen maddox
i don't get to do that this year. it's almost a little depressing to think of the separation that has occurred in my family over the last year. my sister is out in the boonies of central alabama, my parents are stranded in the middle of the mojave desert in california, and i am all cozied up in my little apartment in montgomery. that kind of throws a wrench in the works of tradition.
so i've decided to do something of my own to share a little of what people have meant to me. i guess the next few posts will be a series on who i am thankful for and the why of it all. i reckon these folks should know how much i love and respect them, and what they have meant to at least one person's life. thus begins thankful, part i.
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it was the new year's eve party when jen maddox, an acquaintance of mine via nathan capps and the campus ministry, and i decided that we just had to become bff. we realized this meant reviving an essentially oldschool 6th grade term for friendship's sake, but we didn't care, and i was very nosey about wanting to know more about her anyway. back then i had been at landmark for just under a year and knew most everybody fairly well except jen. she had this little thing called "3-jobs-and-a-full-class-load-and-president-of-delta" which prohibited her from doing too much, so i really didn't even know she was a lcm junkie with notorious credentials of uber-involvement dating back to the kevin bates and brian burkett era, long before i'd ever come on the scene.
anyway, we resurrected bff, much to the chagrin of some more toxic relationships i'd developed in the 5 months prior, and it was good. i'd see jen in the nest and stop to say hey or hangout for a few, and it was good. we'd catch each other at random moments and share the funny happenings of the week, and it was good. for a friendship started with the "let's be best friends" line, this sure did seem natural.
i remember growing out my hair for a long time, and then the night i let a roommate shave it off jen busted through the front door to say, "i heard you got a haircut and look hot now!" i don't know how she knew that.
it made me feel nice.
the night before she left for honduras on a mission trip, we talked on the phone forever, i left her a long message when i randomly called back, and she told me she listened to the cd of spanish vbs songs i recorded for the team the whole time she was over there.
that made me feel great.
and then i remember getting the nerve up to ask her to her own formal toward the end of the year, playing her a goofy song i wrote for just the occasion, and laughing as she hid her face and listened, then said yes.
that made me feel awesome.
i took an internship in indiana that summer, and it didn't stop a thing with the 2 of us. i remember nights upon nights upon nights of finishing work just to talk to jen for hours on the phone. i hate talking on the phone. i loved talking to jen. we would e-mail back and forth on days we didn't use the phone, heck on days even when we did use the phone. she encouraged me. she made me laugh. she kept me connected. she kept me from being lonely. she was my best friend, and she was becoming more than a best friend.
i'm stopping right there. i write this story not to share the story of us, of how we got together and are now going on our 16th "monthiversary", but to say that the friendship we had 16 months ago is the same friendship we have today. she is my best friend, and i would not be the man i am now if it hadn't been for the relationship we have that has been going on for almost 2 years. every day i thank God for who He has brought me to. every day i thank God for jen. every day i see God's love in jen, and am reminded that if i want to love others as God loves me, then jen is a shining example of just that. when i want to see people as people and not as their mistakes or faults, i think of what jen would do. when i think of how i could react and treat an enemy when i have been wronged and cursed and mistreated, i ask myself how jen would treat that person.
thank you, jen, for being an example.
thank you, jen, for being my friend.
check it out - 01.20.07
vapor - 11.15.06
can't complain - 11.10.06
turn the page - 11.09.06
who invented the word "me-maw"? - 09.28.06