"Will you be my friend?" A question almost muffled by the roar of a second grade class room. Though, I was only eight, it was a question that would change my life forever. Before me was a tiny, freckled faced, frizzy haired, little girl, named Carly. Oh, Carly. I've learned a lot from her. Funny little things like, the true meaning of being a friend, and thinking completely outside of the box. These are some of the things I have plugged into my personality, over the course of knowing her. Though the experiences I have gone through with Carly are what have impacted my life.
"Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Fourteen years is a long time to go without having a few lousy moments. In no way will I ever forget the night Carly and I spent in People's Valley. In the time that I have known this girl I have never seen her more sick then I did on this night. She was completely immobilized. Carly was unmistakably disoriented, regurgitated her dinner like a bird does in order to feed its young, only then to roll over in it while telling us she was fine, not realizing what she had done. Our friend's father gathered up her limp body that was still murmuring she was "fine" and laid her on the floor in the living room leaving me in charge of watching over her. Instead of taking my place on the couch I curled up next to my sick friend until she started to come to. Regardless of how bad she smelled at that time, I was there for her, like I knew she would have been for me. Well, the time shortly came where I needed her.
The call came in the early morning, early for a teenager anyways. "Um, can you give me a ride? There is a tarp flying off the end of my car" I promptly told her. "A what? Yeah sure I will be right over." Carly announced. The sight of a giant black tarp billowing out from under my small car along with what appeared to be a fire hose was obviously not what she had been expecting. Carly and our other roommate just started laughing at me. Then of course came story time. The night prior I was visiting my significant other and with all young couples we got into a little tiff. Upset I and discouraged I headed home. Half way home I decided I did not like leaving things on a sour note. Driving up a curvy road I pulled a u-turn, not the best u-turn in the world because I went almost completely over a fire hydrant. To this day I still do not know why the fire hydrant had a pole sticking out of it, and then a tarp wrapped around the pole. That was all I was willing to talk about at that time considering I had only had the car six month. Being the true friends they are they helped me remove the tarp from the axle of my car. Or I should say, they helped me cut the tarp off of my axle with a butter knife. I found the true friends, like Carly, love you no matter how early it is in the morning, and still have the energy to laugh. This was one of the stranger moments we had together, but she still got me to laugh about it. Nothing can compare to some of the out right bizarre moments we had in high school.
Wiccans are people who cast spells that are used for healing, love, or to cast out negative influences. Now growing up, as both only children, it was sometimes a struggle to find our true selves. When Carly, and I had become freshman, her father got remarried, that was about the time Carly told me she was going to be Wiccan. Though, the night Carly asked me to join her in stealing her father's truck, and drive in to the middle of the woods too cast spells was the moment I thought for sure my friend was ill. Since then I have overcome situations by thinking this way, it is not about thinking outside of the box, it is about taking the box completely away. My junior year of high school one of my class assignments was to make a poster representing purgatory. Although the majority of my class painted pictures of souls waiting to enter through the pearly gates, I drew Super Mario Brothers. I designed that one horrible level. You are just about to reach the castle at the end, and retrieve the Princess. Mario is storming through the evil mushrooms, tackling the turtles, and grabbing up coins left and right. Your heart is pounding, and the controls are sticky from your sweating palms grasping what could be the final count down. But blast! You fell down the hole again. If it was not for Carly showing me it is ok to be different I do not believe I would have been able to put myself out there, and take a risk. I have learned from her if you do not take the risk the can not get the reward.
I do not know a person that has saved peoples lives, someone that has overcome a life threatening illness, or someone nationally known for their greatness. I know Carly. I would not trade her for anyone. She has helped me become a better person, a more outgoing person, a person who is not afraid to say, yes I can. We have been through a lot. I am not proud of everything that has happened, but I have learned from everything Carly and I have gone through. They say learning is one of the building blocks of life, well, if this is true then she has given me a lot of blocks. She is a true friend, and I am a better person for knowing her.
On the plus side: Your feelings for your friend and her personality are very clear. On the down side: This narrative is so chaotic that I can barely make sense of it. I think that, perhaps, you are trying to be artistic in eschewing a standard narrative line. But it's not working. One minute we're in grade school. The next, Carly is throwing up. (At what age? From the flu? Cancer medications? Binge drinking? We don't know.) Then, suddenly, somebody's asking somebody for a ride. There's a tarp flapping on somebody's car. Are we in a dream?
... No, no, no: This won't do. You must bring at least a modicum of coherence to the essay, even if Carly's effect on you is the opposite.
Well I am not sure as to how this was helpful in the least.
If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. If you teach him how to fish, he will eat all his life.
The only thing I am getting is the fish. Your not telling me how to make it better, or less chaotic only pointing out that it is chaotic.
You can not point out what is unsatisfactory and leave satisfied thinking you helped.
