Fated Friendships

It is strange to see the hand that fate will deal you. In this case, I’m referencing friends that seem as if they wouldn’t have a single thing in common, yet they prove the old saying of opposites attract. When our first semester of the education program drew to a close, my close circle of likeminded friends were all reflecting on how we met. I’m sure it’s of little to no interest to the reader, but indulge me, if you will.

I had been told that the people that were in our class were going to be in all our classes until we graduated. (That is, of course, with the exception of elementary and secondary education majors going their separate ways for the methods courses.) Going in to class, it is great to have someone that you already know. I was fortunate to have a long-time friend starting the Teacher Education Program at the exact same time.

I knew Heath since we were in elementary school; we were supposed to graduate the same year, but I skipped second grade. We weren’t really close until community college, surprisingly, since we were in band together. At our school, the band was more important than the football team, it seemed, and we were a huge family of two hundred. In community college, we bonded over general nerd activities (Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, anime, etc.). By the time we reached UAH, we were carpooling and discussing deep topics on our, almost hour long, expedition to school.

As we were introducing ourselves in class, we were paired up. Knowing one another already, Heath and I naturally paired up. We were told to find out about the other person and introduce them to the class and they would do the same for you. I remember rolling my eyes at three girls in the class in particular:

One of the girls seemed to be a Jesus freak. Being agnostic, I try to steer away from religious discussions, especially when I am afraid of offending someone’s views. She mentioned going on retreats and mentoring, or something of the sort. (I admit I had a hard time remembering everything about everyone; this was heightened by the fact that it was an 8 a.m. class.) That seemed to be the biggest point of the presentation, other than the fact that she was a mother.

Two girls presented together and I automatically had a feeling that I would not get along with either of them. Both these girls were involved in beauty pageants and modeling; one was in a Lifetime movie, even (and the first Hannah Montana movie, even though she hates to admit that one). One girl graduated at the age of 16 and got her associates degree in psychology by 18. The other girl was in the army; because of a few family members of mine that are in the military, I’m wary of those in service. Not only that, but she is Catholic; however, the Catholic aspect doesn’t deter me as much as would be thought, since my boyfriend is of the same faith.

What followed rang true with the other old phrase of “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

Heath and I were in the student center, discussing Lord of the Rings for some odd reason. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed a girl that was in our class sitting near us. I do not remember who initiated conversation first, but Jennifer – the girl who I identified as the Jesus freak girl – was soon sitting with us discussing Lord of the Rings, and, more impressively to me, Dragonlance.

After possibly fifteen minutes of conversation, the other two girls approached us. They were asking something about our next class, I hardly remember by this point. While Jennifer and Ashlie – the Catholic-Army-Beauty Queen – discussed their children, I told Kacy – the model/actress that graduated at 16 – that I was impressed by her achievements. Kacy promptly told me not to be, since she was homeschooled. Somehow, the conversation shifted to a television show called “Toddlers and Tiaras” and the estrogen level began to spike. Never exactly being a girly girl, I was just as lost as Heath was and we proceeded to discuss World of Warcraft.

The odd part about our relationship is that we all felt like loners – or at least three of us.

Ashlie, after being discharged on medical reasoning and recovering from her amnesia, felt as if she needed to make the shift to civilian life. Sometimes, it is awkward because she’ll be discussing openly how to kill people, rip their ears off, or make bombs out of everyday objects, but we quickly got used to it. She’s still pretty rough around the edges at times, being very blunt and hardly afraid to hurt anyone’s feelings. We joke that she has her lawyer on speed dial and will call him in a heartbeat to sue, but it’s true. Ashlie is like a momma bear, and not only with her baby, but with us, too.

Kacy is only 18 and a junior in college. I hate to fall fate to the classic stereotype of homeschooled students being “socially retarded” (which I will save that for a later blog), and Kacy was far from socially retarded. Regardless, there is always an odd transitional period. Being from Tennessee, she was out of her element in unfamiliar territory minus a few friends and her boyfriend. Kacy is often the responsible one; she keeps everything from class and knows when everything is due – often, she has it done in advance.

These three girls are some of my best friends. I don’t know how I would have made it through my first block of education classes if it weren’t for Heath, Jennifer, Ashlie, and Kacy. It’s weird how fate matches you up, but I guess they needed me just as much as I needed them.