Nothing to Lose
I haven't blogged in quite a while. But tonight was special, and I think it deserves a blog.
Tonight one of my best friends in the whole world graduated from college. I have a lot of best friends, all of which I met in college. And I've seen quite a few of them graduate now, but seeing Galen walk and get his degree hit me in a different way.
I remember right before my first (and only) year at Biola, I found out I was going to be rooming with some asain dude named Galen Dang. I looked him up on facebook, and thought, "Oh man, this dude is going to be such a chump." (Although I didn't say 'chump,' because that's a word I picked up from Galen.) The day we moved in, the first thing I remember thinking was that his voice threw me off. This dude was full blown asain. But he had a deep voice with a Santa Barbara accent that made him sound like he was straight out of Rocket Power or something. I didn't think we would get along at all. Plus I had all my other friends, and two of them shared a bathroom with us, so I didn't think I really needed to worry about hanging with this guy.
I could go into all the details of that first year rooming together, but that would be exceptionally long, explicit, and beside the point.
Galen and I started off our college "careers" in pretty similar places. And tonight at the end of his, I don't think our lives could have gone down more different paths. I dropped out of college, he finished early with a high GPA. He kept the same girlfriend, with a long distance relationship. I bounced back and forth between girlfriends before finally meeting my beatiful wife.
I think tonight was a little disheartening at first. It was a reminder of my failures in academics. That I could have been down there sitting with him tonight, and we could have done this whole adventure side by side. But thank God that's not how things went.
Every time my friends graduate, it scares the hell out of me. I think of all the places they could go now, and some have gone far. And that's really hard some days. I think of how the bond we all have could fade, real life could kick in, and I'd finally have to accept that this life-long brotherhood we all promised that we would share is just a dream, and a dumb one.
But after so many graduations, a marriage, a baby, and a more than full time job, I know that's just not going to happen anymore. Having Kris home, knowing Chap's still far, but at least he's on the west coast again, knowing Nate's going to come back and Lucas will always just randomly show up, it's setting in that graduation and real life isn't an end. For Galen and I, I'm actually so glad he's done with school. We've been through the last three years together, and now that school's out of the way, I feel like our friendship can really begin. And I'm super stoked for everything that's going to happen next with him and his life and his girl and his ministry. And I'm super stoked that I get to be around to see it all happen.
My friends and I have something special, irreplacable. There's no distance that can keep us apart. Seriously, we've been doing this whole thing where a bunch of us are all over the country and we're still so close.
Tonight, I was bummed about my failures. Was. But it takes one quick look at my beautiful wife, one quick look at my beautiful daughter, seeing all my friends try to teach her stupid words and fight over who gets to hold her, argue with Nicole about nonsense things and we all laugh at together at Denny's just like we did three years ago at the beginning of all this, to know that I have it good. I'm glad my path went a different direction than everyone else's. I am filled with joy to have a beautiful and wonderful family. My wife, my daughter, and all my brothers. And I am stoked for more people to graduate, move on into real life, so that we can really start this brotherhood. Because it'll take a hell of a lot more than some degrees and milage to ruin this.
Stay gold.