I saw an old friend yesterday. It was a friend that I haven’t seen in a long time, and we only had an hour to talk. I was humored by the little things I still say that I didn’t realize came from him. We laughed over old stories and talked about what was happening in our lives now. He’s beginning a new stage and moving away and the spontaneous visit meant more to me than I could probably explain to him. In that hour I was reminded of how much he meant to me at a time when I really needed someone to understand. When I graduated college, I knew that things between us would never be the same. He was going on to more school, and at the time he didn’t know where. I was just going home to try to figure out what I even wanted to do. There on my porch swing at 820 we talked like we had so many times before and I said goodbye to college. I shared with him myself, and he was one of the first people who ever really understood that. No matter how much distance is between us, I'll remember him and what he did for me always.

"Get up," an echo sounded low. "Get up and take your place;
You were not meant for failure here. Get up and win the race."
"With borrowed will get up," it said,
"You haven't lost at all.For winning is no more than this:
To rise each time you fall."