Ode to Matt

If I've had a good night's sleep, then I wake up fully cognizant of the world. I woke up that way this morning thinking about Matt. He's a friend of mine I met in the big city. He lived a floor below me in dorms.

Ok, maybe I wasn't totally cognizant because when I woke up I was thinking of a conversation we had. Matt and I had an almost instant friendship. I remember the first time I met him (he doesn't really remember me at this moment). He was serenading the door of one of my floormates and soon to be really awesome friend, Keya. I was curious who was playing the guitar, so I investigated and found him sitting on the floor. I asked him what he was doing and he told me. I was satiated with the response so I went back to my room to work. A few minutes later, he asked me if I had some scissors so he could cut a picture. I lent them to him and then I didn't see him for about a week.

He remembers me from our next encounter. I was in my floor kitchen with a bunch of my floormates and we couldn't open a jar of caramel. I told them to hang on and I started wandering the halls looking for a guy to open the jar. Hey, it's a good tactic to talk to good-looking guys and make them feel strong, etc. when they can open the jar. The first guy who tried couldn't open it. The second guy couldn't open it.



I was walking past Matt's room (then known in my haed as the guitar playing guy) and I saw him in there and told him my dilemma and my non-results. Matt was determined to open that jar. And he did! I know I made his day when he opened that jar. As I was walking away, he asked me my name and I told him. The next day, I was walking from one class to another and I recognized him and said hi. He said hi back and asked me who I was. I said he opened my jar yesterday, and he instantly remembered my name and beamed at me.

The moment we became real, true friends came next. I'll set the scene without all the pre-amble. I was in the hall trying to convince Brilliant to let me wash his feet (this was when we were just friends) and Matt was there insanely drunk. He pulled me aside and slured at me that I was NOT going to wash Brilliant's feet and instead I was going to hang out with him and his friends. And that is what I did. And the rest is history.

The song that reminds me of Matt. I heard it in his room several times and it took me forever to get him to email it to me.

All the other moments have come flooding back: sitting on the bench in the park watching the miniscule fireworks; watching "The Office" in his room; watching "Trailer Park Boys" in his room; laughing our asses off at some crazy thing one of us said; him cooking me dinner of steak that tasted better with ketchup and then me cooking him an awesome dinner of mango chicken, soft yams, and cinnamon buns; our lame good-bye with lots of hugs; helping him with his math; showing him how to post a website; writing a story together over MSN about a horse that turned into a man and the adventure he had; and of course our hours and hours talking about everything from our families to our world views.



Anyway, this morning I was thinking about some of the great conversations Matt and I had. And they truly were. We talked about anything and everything with such honesty. I think Matt is the only person in this world I haven't lied to ... ok, not exactly true, if I lied, I always confessed afterward, and I did withhold information from him too ... like the time Chris drew on his forehead "England rules" when they were going to the soccer game in the portugal district and I saw then at the bus stop and said nothing. But Matt is very good people. And I miss him. We've talked on the phone a couple of times since I've been here, but it hasn't been like our face-to-face conversations. I look forward to seeing him and spending a day with him when I go back to the city at Christmas.

When I started this entry I had a tear or two in my eye wondering if I'll ever have conversations like I had with Matt again. But now I'm smiling because I know I have (had) a great friendship that keeps me warm with memories.