Picking up where we left off
September, 2022
I’ve known these guys for a long time.
We used to live together.
Now we only see each other a few times a year. These reunion trips are rare, often spontaneous. If there’s a silver lining to how rarely we see each other, it’s that we’re forced to be intentional in catching up. Zach, Joe, and Wyatt greeted me with bear hugs as I rolled in at 10:45PM, after a 6 hour drive. We crowd around the kitchen and fill each other in as I warm up a leftover burrito and rub my eyes. We’re back.
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My nervous excitement greets me like an old friend as Joe loads the Razor. Wyatt puts on his full-face helmet while Joe and I buckle our climbing helmets. Zach flaunts his gas station sunglasses.
I feel the force of the engine and marvel as Wyatt guns the Razor up a scree bank. Now I’m back on Sinto Avenue, cheering him on as he wheelie’s past our front porch.
We pull off atop an overlook. Amongst the fog and the Douglas Firs, we could be back in Spokane. I follow Joe and Wyatt down to a cave. I snap a picture.
We climb back to the overlook. Zach hyperfixates on the RC cars, and now Wyatt is showing us the winch he purchased for his miniature Bronco. I feel 22 again, driving Joe and Wyatt’s RC cars up the steps of our front porch.
Zach reminds me that we’ve known each other for six years, which warps my brain. I think back to those days in my college dorm, talking about the mountains we want ski and whether or not a girl liked one of us back. The conversation topics haven’t changed over the years. We’re both still single, but we’ve skied a few of those mountains already.
Zach, 2026
Zach, circa 2020
Zach and I, 2024 self-funded ski expedition to Patagonia
It’s a different place, but nothing’s changed.
Maybe that’s not true. Zach’s improved at the fiddle. Joe’s quit his vape. Wyatt found a house with an extra bedroom - to display his hot wheel collection.
What is true is that these small growth spurts are noticed and celebrated. Long distance friendships are cool- it feels like we’re still growing together, even though we’re in different states. These catchups around the kitchen used to happen every day. Now they happen once or twice a year, but they’re only getting richer.