Ode to the Patel
Katrina and I said goodbye to a potential life-long friend today: Matthew. He left for "home" this morning after succeeding in graduating (more than how I did). Regardless, Matthew--known as Matthew Patel to us--is sure to be someone who we see frequently throughout our lives. Why? Because he gets us.
I met Matthew a year and three months ago. He was in my advanced writing class despite his being a math major. We didn't really look twice at each other until the second or third week into the semester: we had to blog in the class and everyone had to read each other's. He happened to notice a quote from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World that I had used in one of my blogs and mentioned it to me in class. I hadn't intended for it to be a Scott Pilgrim quote, but I loved the movie well enough that I knew we had to be instant friends.
It was still awkward, at the time, though; because I was engaged to be married. He admitted later that he wasn't sure if it was ok that we hung out after class sometime. So, we didn't really hang out until after the engagement was broken up in November.
The first time we hung out, we watched Scott Pilgrim, which has turned out to be a bit of a tradition for us. Later, I introduced him to Katrina. It was odd because I didn't really know how they would get along because Katrina was kind of a hardcore Mormon girl type and Matthew was my partner in all small Mormon crimes (cursing and making as many penis jokes as we can in a conversation). It took a couple of times hanging out; but in the end, Katrina almost became closer to Matt than I was.
Throughout this year, we've found little quirks about our friendship that we often embrace. For instance, we usually have each other's backs after a break up--Matt will threaten to kill the ungrateful guy in his sleep and Kat and I will plan some ironic plot of death for his previous lady friend. This is something we've learned with Matt: we can always come to him after being broken up with, and no matter how badly we feel, we'll always leave with a smile. Matt's good at that.
Matt's also very generous and has the sweetest heart I've ever known for a man to have (he's going to kill me for publishing this). He always tries to hide it with a rough, manly exterior; but it always shows when he finds out we're out of money (again) and he forces us to go out to eat with him, his treat, or when he orders the extra cookies with us in mind. I'm always thunderstruck when he goes through yet another break up because he's so good to the women he is surrounded by--I guess she had been too self-possessed to really see the gem she had a hold of.
And this morning, we said 'goodbye and travel safe' to him without knowing when we get to see him again ("I've lost my rough-housing buddy. I've got to get my energy out somewhere!" Katrina says before I reply with a, "You're not taking it out on me!"). Somehow, though, I feel that this is not a permanent goodbye. Matthew really is like the older brother we never had; and I can't imagine forsaking him over time. Besides, he'll have to be there for our weddings to tell us whether or not the groom is deserving of our attention!
I met Matthew a year and three months ago. He was in my advanced writing class despite his being a math major. We didn't really look twice at each other until the second or third week into the semester: we had to blog in the class and everyone had to read each other's. He happened to notice a quote from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World that I had used in one of my blogs and mentioned it to me in class. I hadn't intended for it to be a Scott Pilgrim quote, but I loved the movie well enough that I knew we had to be instant friends.
It was still awkward, at the time, though; because I was engaged to be married. He admitted later that he wasn't sure if it was ok that we hung out after class sometime. So, we didn't really hang out until after the engagement was broken up in November.
The first time we hung out, we watched Scott Pilgrim, which has turned out to be a bit of a tradition for us. Later, I introduced him to Katrina. It was odd because I didn't really know how they would get along because Katrina was kind of a hardcore Mormon girl type and Matthew was my partner in all small Mormon crimes (cursing and making as many penis jokes as we can in a conversation). It took a couple of times hanging out; but in the end, Katrina almost became closer to Matt than I was.
Throughout this year, we've found little quirks about our friendship that we often embrace. For instance, we usually have each other's backs after a break up--Matt will threaten to kill the ungrateful guy in his sleep and Kat and I will plan some ironic plot of death for his previous lady friend. This is something we've learned with Matt: we can always come to him after being broken up with, and no matter how badly we feel, we'll always leave with a smile. Matt's good at that.
Matt's also very generous and has the sweetest heart I've ever known for a man to have (he's going to kill me for publishing this). He always tries to hide it with a rough, manly exterior; but it always shows when he finds out we're out of money (again) and he forces us to go out to eat with him, his treat, or when he orders the extra cookies with us in mind. I'm always thunderstruck when he goes through yet another break up because he's so good to the women he is surrounded by--I guess she had been too self-possessed to really see the gem she had a hold of.
And this morning, we said 'goodbye and travel safe' to him without knowing when we get to see him again ("I've lost my rough-housing buddy. I've got to get my energy out somewhere!" Katrina says before I reply with a, "You're not taking it out on me!"). Somehow, though, I feel that this is not a permanent goodbye. Matthew really is like the older brother we never had; and I can't imagine forsaking him over time. Besides, he'll have to be there for our weddings to tell us whether or not the groom is deserving of our attention!
Hurray for man-friends!
ReplyDeleteHurray for true friends :)
ReplyDelete