Roadtrips

  My main thread throughout the last post was my emphasis on enjoying the little things. I have been thinking this weekend and I think one of my favorite things is road trips. This often happens when I am traveling to tournaments. Most of the major Warhammer tournaments are on the east coast. That means over the past five years I have had quite a lot of three to five-hour car rides with my friends. The first few could have been more comfortable. The way it would typically go is that we hit the two hour mark and we realized that we no longer had anything superficial to talk about. We had made all the same jokes and told the same funny childhood stories. This often coincides with me having to take my mandatory stretch break. After about two and a half hours my legs begin to cramp. I have found that there is something truly magical about stopping at a gas station in the early hours of the morning. I have more deep conversations with my friends under the lights of a 7/11 than anywhere else. I have heard stories of parental neglect and fears about never being able to live up to self-imposed standards. All of these conversations have been shared with my drink of choice a coke slushie. I have shared my deep fears with my friends leaning against the gas pump as the sounds of the same commercial drone on in the background. When all the superficial conversations end we begin to connect on a deeper level. At times when I feel that I am getting overwhelmed I close my eyes and imagine that I am back there. I can hear the same pop song. I can hear the screeching noise that the straws make when pulled up and down in gas station big gulps, but more importantly, I see my friends laughing and telling me that everything is going to be okay. They regale me with stories of their own rejections at the middle school dance. Everyone takes turns giving the storyteller grief only to turn around to tell an even crazier story of their childhood antics. I have learned a lot of lessons at those gas stations in the early hours on road trips, but the most important thing is that I need to be okay with letting my guard down. Only when I can do that with friends do I feel the best and remember that everything will be okay.

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