ZAXBY'S WITH ALEX
2016 years into the Common Era. 4 days into the 6th month of that year. I wake up. I remember seeing 8:37am on the Fitbit, turning around, and proceeding the go back to sleep. I woke up for the last time a few hours later around 11. The blinds and drapes are lightly colored, so there’s an opaque kind of shine from the sun in the room. I don’t have a shirt on, and the room is quiet, but I still can hear what’s going on downstairs. Mom’s on the phone cooking, and Bagel is following her around the kitchen. It’s just her, Bagel, and I at the house. Dad left for Indiana/Boston Wednesday at 5:00 am. Chan left for Holly Springs a few hours later around 7:30 am that same day. I get out of bed to brush my teeth. I turn on some music on some daily routine type deal. Alex texts me to see if I want to get some Zaxby’s downtown around 12:30. I’m cool with it so I get dressed and I tell Mom that I’ll be back in a little bit. She tells me to have fun and be careful. She’s always worried about me, partially because I’m the youngest, but 100% because she’s a mother and that's what mothers do best. I arrive downtown early, so I head to Wuxtry to kill some time. Wuxtry is a record store that has an upper floor filled with books and toys. I enjoy collecting toys, although I probably spend too much on them too often. So much and so often that I’d consider it to be a vice of mine of some sort.
Alex texts me saying that he’s walking up. We see each other, dap, and order some food. He got a plate of hot wings, and of course, if you know me, you know I got the chicken tender platter. The lady gave me some Zaxby’s sauce, but I prefer honey mustard. Upon my request for some, she was gracious enough to provide me with a sauce before my food cooled down. We spoke on sports, women, music, pretty much everything. Even the time in 4th grade that I spent the night at his house when we rented and watched Hardball. Classic times.
Oh yea, here’s a little of background information about Alex. We grew up together in the small town of Warwick located in New York. This is late 1990’s to early 2000’s. We were best friends. We had sleepovers, played soccer together, and he even threw me a going away party when I moved to Apex during the summer of 2003. At the going away party, he gave me an Oakland Raiders football as a gift because he knew my favorite player at the time was Jerry Rice. Once I moved to Apex, within the next few years, social media caught fire. From Xanga to Myspace all the way to Twitter and Facebook, even Instagram. We kept in touch through that. Years later, his family moved to a suburb near Atlanta. Once our college years were upon us, he got into UGA. Conveniently, during the summer of 2014, my parents bought a house in Athens, where UGA is located and we got up for the first time in 12-13 years just last year.
As we were conversing, I kept telling him how crazy it is that we’re 23 now and how all of our friends have graduated, which makes me feel behind in a life that already moves quick as it is. We speak on the epidemic of logging on to Facebook and seeing everybody getting married and having kids and how there’s no fun in that, because it all seems rushed. Alex proceeds to tell me to think about our life in comparison to the earth’s and even the universe’s. He tells me to think of our time here, and how when it’s all said and done, our existence will be nothing but a mere flash. That made me think more than I thought it would. We may live for a trillionth of the time the Earth has been in existence, if that. That’s nothing. Not to say that our time here isn’t important, but how much of an impact will we have when it’s all over. I had to go help my mom with a few things around the house and he had some errands to run, so we finished our meal and vowed to get up again before I left town.
I drove home thinking about what Alex had said. I found Mom and she told me she didn’t need any help. I went to my room after to write. I wrote a few things then I headed down to the office to scan them onto my laptop. As I sat in Dad’s office, I thought about life a little differently. I thought about how life would’ve been at this moment had I made the decisions I’m making now, back then. That lead me to think about my future and how I don’t want to be stuck in the same position during different times of my life. My life may not mean much to the universe, but to me, it means everything. I’ve realized that I’ve avoided taking risks for too long, but even avoiding risks puts your dreams and aspirations at risk. I can’t hide certain things like I used to. I can’t pretend to want accolades that mean nothing to me. Things can change at any moment, and one of those moments of change just so happened to happen during the 4th day of the 6th month during the 2016th year in the Common Era.
I can’t stress this enough to you, live your life. I mean who’s more fit to live my dreams other than me? Nobody. Here’s to every moment being the moment of my life. This is for all of those who believe in me, I love you and I am forever in debt to you. I promise not to let you down the same way I let myself down these past 5 years. This is for the nights I spent confusing myself about what I wanted through self-doubt. Here’s to taking the chances that are given. Here’s to going for it. Here’s to not saving hoes. Here’s to being grateful. Here’s to protecting your dreams. Here’s to the next 5 years making up for lost time and then some. Here’s to new beginnings, for time doesn’t discriminate and regret has no mercy. Here’s to change, and here’s to making the most of our time here even if it really is just a flash.
-RDL4EVER