Happy Birthday Calvin

 This is my letter to Calvin, for his birthday.

Dear Calvin,

Do you remember the day we met? Well both days, of course. I'll start with the first one. You added me on MySpace in the summer of 2005. A cute boy with long curly hair, playing an orange guitar on a couch. Your music page. Your most popular song was "Grace Says" but my favorite was "Careful, Dear." I told you exactly that about two months later and within the week, I was surprised on AIM by an im from someone who wrote with a teal background and sea green text. It was you, even though you choose not to remember that fact and have told all your friends that I was the one who imed you. We grew close quickly and you were my best friend within days, it felt like.But you were all the way in Connecticut and I was in California and it seemed like I would have to wait forever to see you. And it almost was. 



The second day we met was in November 2008. You bought me a plane ticket to come see you in Boston at your dorm. We were freshman and we sort of lost contact towards the end of senior year and throughout the summer. But we reconnected when we got to college. This was such an exciting trip, after three years I was finally going to see you in person and go to the east coast for the first time. I took an overnight flight from San Francisco, through Atlanta to get there around 8 in the morning. I was so very nervous. I was torn between wanting to run back to Berkeley and run towards you, but I guess we know where that ended up. It was chilly, but not winter yet, and we took the Silver Line to the E green line back to your dorm. You bought me Au Bon Pain for breakfast because we couldn't go back to your dorm until your roommates woke up. So, we sat and we talked and it was probably the most meaningful, important conversations I had had up until that point, not because it was about anything really important in itself, but it was the fact that I was talking to you, to YOU, finally. 


And now it's 2012 and we're both 22. It's been almost seven years since the first time we started to talk and a little over three years since we first met in person. I'm here writing this in Amherst, just a ten-minute drive away from where you live, it's ridiculous to think about, to try to wrap my head around. You've been the most consistent person in my life for so long, someone I can tell anything to, do anything with, have all kinds of meaningless, silly fun with. I am so, so, so very happy and grateful for that im you sent seven years ago, it has changed my life. 


Cheers to the rest of our lives, to being best friends, and to never having to pretend around each other. 


It's about time to hit the dusty trail,
Jill