Ryan NorrisTo me, and probably many of you, friendship is the most important thing in my life, after my family. Besides my friends here at school, I have my “crew” back home. I consider these girls to be a significant part of my life. I go to them with my problems, we laugh together and cry together. We even finish each other’s sentences.
As with all things in life, nothing is perfect. Friends fight. Last weekend, our group was divided after one of the biggest fights ever. (And all over a guy, too, but that’s not important here.)
For several days, I was angry, and then, filled with dread. Could it be that our crew was done? I mean, Melissa was on my side and she was still mad, too. But had I lost two of my best friends forever?
I was returning to school after that weekend, actually two minutes away from the entrance to Cabrini, when I got a phone call from my roommate. One of our friends, a Cabrini student who lived off campus, had passed away that morning.
After I got over the initial shock that such a young and charismatic person, not to mention my friend, was gone, my thoughts shifted.
Have you ever had a moment when everything just became clear to you? You ask yourself why you didn’t see it before. My moment of clarity was this: my friends are important to me. One fight, no matter how awful, cannot end our friendship. Life is too short to hold grudges against people you care about, no matter how angry you are.
I had to be the one to reach out because I knew no one else would. It was pretty damaging to my ego to have to do that, but I knew I would get over it. I made the effort and sent a text message to my friend Meghan. I wasn’t apologizing, but I needed to tell her that our friendship was important to me, whether we were speaking or not.
Our phone conversation several days later was long. We talked about our fight, about our friendship, about how anything could happen at anytime and we don’t have control over life. Everything isn’t great again yet, but it’s a start. I just can’t believe that it took my friend’s death for me to realize how valuable life, and friendship, is.
So maybe this whole thing sounds cheesy. I don’t mean it to be. I’m not a cheesy person. But I am human. I don’t expect people to run out and apologize to their friends or anything because they read this article. All I know is how significant this whole experience has been for me.
Posted to the web by Ryan Norris
