I like spoons

When I was 10 my family and I moved to the mountains to live with my Nanny and Pawpaw. Being so young and leaving my friends at my old school was hard, and although I made a few friends at my new school I still didn’t have anyone that I felt super close to, until 6th grade. I remember walking in the halls when I spotted this girl; pretty, tall, dark hair and seemingly more shy than I was. I didn’t recall having met her before so I had a feeling she was the new girl. Although I can be shy myself, I’m also still pretty sociable. 

So, my little social butterfly self walks up to her as she’s getting her books from her locker and said, “Hi, I’m CJ. Can I have your number?” (in hindsight I’m sure I seemed like a fucking weirdo)...She gave me this shocked look, like I had green skin and three eyeballs. Her reply (drum roll please!) — “Uh…😳…no.” To be fair I didn’t relay to her my thought process at the time when I did that, which was, “She looks like a nice person and she looks like she’d be a good friend. I’m gonna go ask for her number.” (we laughed about that later).

The memory is a little fuzzy now (considering it’s been 21 years) so I’m not sure if it was a few days or a few weeks later but she caught me either in the hallway or at recess and said she wanted to be my friend and gave me her number. We’ve been friends ever since. 

One of the stories that I always forget about until she brings it up is the “I like spoons” story. We were in middle school and had just finished gym. I’m not sure what had happened that day but I know she was really upset, crying in the locker room. I wanted to make her feel better (and because I’m my brother’s sister **because he’s goofy as fuck) I couldn’t think of anything better to do than to make her laugh. So while she’s sitting on the bench I go around the corner to the other side of the locker room and as I’m coming back around to her I start walking and talking crazy repeating, “I like spoons!” until she’s crying but not because she's sad, because she’s laughing so hard (looking back I have no idea where the "I like spoons" saying even came from 😅).

She’s officially the longest -ship I’ve had (relation- or friend-). 

We’ve been through a lot: 

• My mom passing

• Her marriage

• The birth of her kids (I wish I had been there for all of them) 

• My breakup 

• Her divorce

• Her journey through nursing school

• My journey through nursing school

• And plenty more...(and more in the years to come)

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 21 years since I was a weirdo and just randomly asked a girl on 6th grade hall for her number, but I’m glad I did. I know our friendship has had it’s ups and downs but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love you Agnes.

Love, Opal

Morals of today’s story: 

• Get out there and be social, you never know who you're gonna meet

• Ask for their number, they may just be your lifelong best friend

• If someone is sad, you can either hug them (with their consent of course) or make them laugh (or you can do both - which I’m pretty sure I did)

• You gotta use the new lingo if you wanna stay hip (I’m trying to be cool using the youngsters language, don’t come at me) 

• Giving yourself and your friend old lady (or old man) names and going by them in public is quite funny

Thanks for reading. Follow along & grow with me. 

-CJ