Nate

I was saying last night that I’d write about some of my friends that I’ve had over the years. In that case, I’ll have to start with Nate.

Nate started going to the same school as me in the fifth grade. He was that kid that was a little different, kept to himself mostly and got made fun of a lot. I hate to say it, but I was a one of the people who made fun of him. It took people’s ridicule off of me for awhile. Nate lived about 4 blocks from my house and we’d walk the same way to get home. There was a big ditch across from school that I’d push him into when we met up.

This kind of stuff went on until the eighth grade. That was the year that Nate and I got into a fight at school. One day I came up on him trying to get into my locker. Someone told him a fake combo to my locker because they thought it would be funny to get us to fight. I fell right into their little scheme though. I saw Nate spinning around my lock and I came up behind him and smacked his head into my locker. The fight that we got into was kind of funny thinking back on it. I’ve never been a violent person and neither is Nate. Our fight was the two of us circling around each other and occasionally trying to smack the other. It only lasted a few minutes until a teacher from up the hall broke it up. “Take it outside” is what he told us.

Later that year, Nate and I ended up in study hall together. The monitor unknowingly put us at the same table together and it was the best thing that could have happened. We started to help each other with our homework and found that it was great fun to drive the monitor crazy by humming a tune in unison. The guy wasn’t a teacher and had no real authority so we’d do it every day to agitate him. By the end of the school year, we were best friends.

Nate and I were always together after that. We were the inseperable duo throughout high school. After school he’d go to my house or I’d end up at his. We played a lot of Nintendo and Super Nintendo and Sega. In the later years of high school, I discovered Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. (For those of you wondering, I was a nerd. I’m much better now though.) Nate quickly picked up those activities too.

During my college years (both of them), Nate and I would get together when I was home on breaks and during the summer. We tried to stay close. I was on my own at school though and he was still living with his folks. I lost my virginity and found alcohol and he had done neither. A chasm started to come between us.

After I dropped out of college and came home, I worked for awhile while living with my family. I made some new friends. Nate and I would still get together but it was only once every couple of weeks. Then I got my first apartment. I was rooming with a guy that I worked with and we lived together for about 8 months before he moved out. I was stuck with a two bedroom apartment and noone to share the rent. Hello Nate, want to get out of your parents house? He sure as hell did.

While we were living together, Nate and I got back to all our old habits. We were hanging out all the time, playing video games and having fun like when we were younger. It was great. Some of the best times that I can remember.

Nate and I lived together for about a year before we both started having money troubles and then we both moved back with our folks. We still stayed in touch though through calls and email and getting together every Saturday. Then I moved to Dubuque and we didn’t see each other more than about once a month. But I was online a lot and we’d talk on MSN all the time, keeping each other up on work and games and movies and life.

Since I’ve moved to Pennsylvania, Nate and I don’t talk very much. He’s never online when I’m on and I just don’t call. Once in awhile we’ll send emails. When we went to visit my folks last month, I didn’t send Nate an email to let him know that we were coming to town. I tried calling him a few times after we got there but his line was always busy when I called.

I think that I don’t talk to him much anymore because I want to remember how our friendship was. I’ve changed so much in the last couple of years, both in my personality and my life in general. The last time Nate and I really talked, I found out that he’s now in a party phase of his life and I passed out of that phase long ago. We’re in very different places in our lives and for the first time, we don’t have much in common. Our last conversation was very strained and hesitant and I’m afraid that if we had gotten together while I was in Iowa, we’d find out that we no longer have anything in common and the friendship would be over. I’ve been friends with Nate since I was fourteen and I’m scared to lose that friendship. So we’ll go on with our occasional emails and hopefully when we reach the same place in our lives again, we might be able to get back to the way we were.