I decided one Fall day to visit Piper and Nick’s new home in Maine. They showed me around and really sold me on how much Maine has to offer. The icing on the cake that trip was Piper and my decision to go kayaking through the inlets to the ocean. The kicker being that the morning of, we were moving rather slow…and I had my flight home that afternoon! But we never questioned each other. We made a plan and we were sticking to it. So despite the sprinkling of (thankfully) warmer rain and a massive time constraint, we went down to the inlets, inflated the kayak, and paddled away. Towards the end of the excursion, we noticed that our bodies were moving closer and closer together. Turns out the kayak was deflating and we were sinking! We managed to make it to the ocean, but there was no way we could float back. We hauled the kayak out of the water and carried it back to the car, marching through mud, trenches, and forest. We were tired, wet, lost, and stressed but we never stopped laughing and somehow I even made my flight! No regrets and a new fun story to share.

When Nick and I were in high school, we shared a lot of great times both in and out of school, which brought us closer together. Whether it was skateboarding downtown after school, sharing the same lunch period, or taking classes together, we were always hanging out. One of those classes was English, where we studied the great tragedy Romeo and Juliet our freshman year. We were assigned a project to act out a scene from the play in front of our classmates and had the option to perform it ourselves or use puppets. Nick and I immediately jumped at the puppet idea and for the next couple of weeks, we had the perfect excuse to hang out every day after school. We’d skateboard downtown to his grandmother’s house, a.k.a. Nan, who is an amazing seamstress and helped make our puppets. To be completely honest, we only spent about ten minutes each day working on them, but we ended up hanging out for hours. Looking back, this project is one of my fondest memories because I truly feel it was the moment that Nick and I became best friends. From that day on, we haven’t skipped a beat.

Taking it back to the very beginning…Sonoran Sky Elementary School. There was a field trip to 'Sky Camp' in Northern Arizona where our entire grade spent 24 - 48 hours doing team building exercises, such as nature scavenger hunts, team obstacle courses, and my personal favorite, creating a group dance in under 30 minutes to a random song that was older than we were. I had the pleasure of being in Piper’s group for the dance exercise and it was an experience filled with laughter, creativity and silliness. I am so grateful that our friendship turned out to be one that continues to grow with us throughout every phase of life. No matter where we are or how much time has passed, we always seem to pick up right where we left off. Although we are adults now, we still channel our fun and goofy elementary school selves when we are together.

My fondest memory of Nick is the second year we made maple syrup at my parents house. There was just something about it that made it a lot of fun with all the tree cutting and wood splitting, late night cooking and all the beer we had while boiling down the sap into syrup. That was also the year we cooked hotdogs in the boiling sap, covered them in chili from Doug’s, and crunched up sweet chili Doritos to make one of the best hot dogs I’ve ever eaten. I think most every day Nick and I were at my parents house when we weren’t making maple syrup by the fire, we were playing video games. That whole time period was so much fun and it lives rent free in my head.

One of my favorite memories with my sister would have to be making blanket forts in the living room. Pushing together all of the couches, strategically lining up pillows, and covering it all with big blankets, all so that we had a cozy place to watch the Lion King for the one hundredth time. Snuggled up with buttered pop corn and caffeine free Diet Coke.

It’s a curious thing to choose one memory to expand on someone you’ve known since you were seven years old. On my inaugural cross-country road trip, it was fitting I make my first stop in America’s crossroads and even more so that my oldest ally and born companion lived there. It’d been six months since I’d seen him, and I was starved for laughter, exchanging stories, good food with all the trimmings, and a soft bed in which to land. There was a quality of peace and happiness in my friend’s voice on the telephone as he directed me through the alluvial streets and maze of apartment complexes named for the Great Lakes and other close geographies. He'd invited Piper to dine with us, to partake in the union of our fervent mind and boyhood memories. I’d never met one of Nick’s girlfriends and I knew by the pomp and circumstance of the evening, along with the calming quality in his voice, that there was something bigger on the horizon than the Sazerac (America's oldest cocktail) and steak on the menu. This moment wasn't wasted on me and I knew then: Nick had met the girl of his life and the woman he would marry!