Weddings & Reunions

Note: Written yesterday 

Today is Thursday and currently I am taking in various shapes and arrangements of clouds via a window-side seat from a Sun Country airlines plane. The sun is initializing its final dissent towards other sides of the world, leg room is quite spacious, and the relaxing sea of hovering grey spherical mist engulfing each corner of the visible horizon makes napping sound like a pretty decent idea.

Within two hours I will be in Minneapolis and shortly afterwards a final landing will guide me into the city of Boston. The purpose of this trip is to see two very close friends, Chris Williams & Caitlin Schwinden, get married in a small beach town outside of Plymouth. Ryan Day, Kyle Spurr, Charlie Brown, and Chris Griel who are also some really great people, will also be in attendance which makes this weekend special for numerous reasons besides a wedding. 

It's been close to two years since all of us have been together in the same place which makes me feel extremely excited yet fairly sorry for the town of Plymouth. One can only guess knowing our track record what can unfold in the span of a weekend with all of us together again. It hasn't been until this exact moment that the reality for the events of this weekend have felt like they are actually going to happen. Until typing fingers starting constructing words upon the shining screen in front of me the notions of "wedding" and "reunion" felt like abstract concepts from a class missing it's lecture notes. 

All of us have been friends since the beginning of our collegiate career at the Unversity of Montana in Missoula and at some point have mostly all been roommates either in dorms or off campus. As if through the lense of a projector a dense book of memories flip tirelessly through the back of my mind. Flashes of garage parties during the freeze of winter, bicycle adventures through downtown allyways, beers shared on linked innertubes, frisbie on the Oval & fateful Luao parties immediately replay like a dusty home movie. I feel blessed to have wandered, made mistakes, laughed, grown up (sort of), and simply lived with the people whom I'm about to see in a matter of hours. They have been some of the biggest influences in my life and I will always be proud to be their friend.

Sitting in this airplane it's becoming apparent that the light outside is dimming and the clouds are losing visibility. Despite everything in front of me getting swept away into blackness of a sinking sun I know in my heart that the future is only shining for Chris and Caitlin. Thank you guys for inviting me to celebrate the beginnings of something truly special. 

Best of luck to you both, I didn't buy you guys a gift so hopefully this makes up for it even though I know a waffle maker would have been really awesome ;)