Daniel

From the moment I met Daniel, he has always been my best friend. It has been so long we've shared nearly everything and anything, and anything that hasn't been talked about is that it hasn't been brought up yet in conversation, not the fact that we *don't* want to tell each other. Now that I'm recalling things and just trying to be honest, there was one small hiatus where we weren't friends.. But we've since reconciled that. There was only one other small hiatus within junior high where he hung out with Mario and his group of friends and I hung out with another group, but toward the end of eighth grade we were one big group of friends anyway. Stick Wars!

An ex once asked me how she ranked among my friends. I told her she is in a different category. And I think this is the best explanations for any guy to his girl, in relation to his friends (if she asks.) She would be the one person I’d expect to tell me NOT to get into a fight. To take the “higher” ground. Daniel, on the other hand, would be the one person I’d expect to jump into the fight with me if I chose to fight. And he would.

There are too many memories to share all in one post. But here are a few highlights before we get into some memories:
 He knew my first crush before anyone else.
I knew his several of his crushes, and probably his first.
He knew my first celebrity crush before anyone else and I know his.
He met me at our "tree" whenever I needed to talk, and vice versa.
United Artist Theaters was our place to chill. First time I ever stole something was with him, $1 in quarters from the fountain so we could play in the arcade.
My second girlfriend (Carolanne) thought he was cuter than me, but I told him I thought she was cute, so he stayed away.
I introduced him to his first and only girlfriend.
I have almost gotten him into a couple fights. He's definitely pushed the boundaries with bigger guys because he knew I had his back.
He made me my first drink.

First time I left the house super late was to catch him walking from his house to our elementary school because his parents were fighting. How did I know? He called me. He asked me to stop him from walking all the way down there, because he couldn't stop himself. I stopped him from continuing his walk, we sat on a bench and he cried and talked about it until he chose to go home.

During 8th grade, he and I didn’t hang out much during school. However, we still lived fairly close and made our regular visits to chill outside of school. I don’t remember what happened that made this sentence so significant to me, but we were talking one day at Andersen Jr. High, and talking about fights. I never put up with fights and since I was a big kid, I usually got my way. I remember Daniel telling me this, “Fights? Brandon, before the end of any fight, not only would you have them hugging it out, but they’d be friends and have chosen to stop cursing because of you. Cause that’s what you do.”

Several years later, I took him with my family to Big Bass Days. It's a fishing tournament at Lake Pleasant for those interested. From what I can recall, he's not a huge fan of camping, but he shares my fishing interest and everyone wants a little vacation. My entire family got the fifth wheel whereas we got a tent outside. We didn't participate in the tournament, but we walked around, checked out girls, checked out guns, and checked out the biggest fish. We met a few cool cats and hung out and flung water at each other. I had met Carolanne and he had met another girl. I left him briefly to be introduced to Carolanne's father and mother that night. I came back and he said that the girl had to go do something. So I ended up saying goodbye to Carolanne (we had exchanged e-mail addresses) and walked off to go find her. We never did.

That night we got our little tent set up, talking about how much fun we actually had. The wind started to pick up..  Rain storm of the century. The fifth wheel my family stayed in rocked back and forth, our tent was coming up from the ground. We spent the entire night keeping the tent up which we succeeded at, and keeping the water out, which we failed at. We tried several times to sleep, we had set up pool lawn chairs (those long ones) to lie on top of as beds, it didn't work. I remember the moment Daniel realized we weren't getting any sleep that night.. See, people started to pull away early throughout the night because it was a dirt lot and with all of the rain it was turning into thick mud. Headlights passed our tent numerous times as we fought the storm. At one point, Daniel covers his eyes and goes, "Why don't those people with the headlights in front of us just leave?!" I hesitantly reply, "Those aren't headlights this time, that’s the sun." And it was 6am. My family walked out of the fifth wheel with us sitting on our chairs outside of our half-fallen tent and us just SOAKED. They asked how our night was.

Fast forward another year or so, Daniel and I were freshmen in high school. We were walking down a hall and one of Daniel’s classmates yells something rude to Daniel jokingly. Daniel turns and yells something back. One of the classmate’s friends took offense and stands up and yells something at Daniel. This guy is 6’3, slightly heavy set, but all in all a big guy. What does Daniel do? He decides to make a remark, “Hey buddy, you better put your dog here on a leash.” The big guy takes a step forward, so I, in turn, take a step forward. The big guy remarks something like to get out of his way, not my problem, something cliché… But I don’t move, “If you try to do anything with him we’re going to have a problem.” I remember saying. He contemplates for a minute, and then sits down. Daniel and I walk away, I whisper to Daniel, “Dude, that was a big guy you were messing with..”

Daniel replies, “Yeah, I wouldn’t have said anything if you weren’t there. I kinda figured you’d step in.” And he laughs…

There are far more memories that are in fragments and Daniel holds the other pieces to. He and I could spend entire days just reminiscing about the old times.  He is as good as a friend could ever ask for. Daniel is far more intelligent than he gives himself credit for, and he has processed and understood love more than most guys our age have. He’s a gentleman at heart and I am glad to call him my best friend.


I'm sure all of you know by now how good it is to have friends. Something I’ve learned is to never think your friends are just there to pass the time. You have friends for a reason, and as long as u have friends u will always have someone to talk to, someone who will listen to you, someone who will be by your side when your need is at its most. I’ve come to realize that one of the best feelings in the world is to know your friends will stand by your side and stay there no matter how hard of road you take them on. No matter what journey lies ahead of u it's always good to know that you can rely on someone’s shoulder to be there for you if your first attempts lead you into the dirt. Don't think bigger numbers makes better friends, always have time to make that friend, that best friend, that friend who will stay with you forever and always.  -Daniel
~Just a thought