As My Friend And Brother

Well, this post has been a long time in the planning (I can't say "making" because I'm just starting it now. ) Last year for my birthday, I received one of the best presents I have ever received. It was a heartfelt and thoughtful blog post from one of my best friends, Jeremy Wilkins. He wished me a happy birthday and briefly chronicled our years of friendship. It was a really nice gesture, and I don't know if I ever really told him how much I appreciated it. At that time, I decided to return the favor with a similar post on his birthday. I actually did remember throughout the year and sometimes I would start to think about what I would write. In hindsight, I should have written it and saved a draft ready to post on his birthday. In the mean time, our little Abby joined us ten days before her due date and four days before Jeremy's birthday. I had lots of people tell me that my life would be turned upside down when she arrived, but it doesn't really sink in until it actually happens. It's not so much that you don't do the same major things, it's that the spare time in between (optimum blogging time) gets completely consumed by your new addition.

I guess that's the long way of making an excuse for not following through with my original plan. Well, as Jeremy pointed out, our relationship began in high school. I can't remember how it got set up (I think it might have been Curt and James trying to set up me and Lindsay), but I was asked to join Lindsay Smith and some friends for "Lazer U2" at Hansen Planetarium. Jeremy was there, and he was pretty cold toward me because he had dated Lindsay and still had some feelings for her. I remember him commenting how much he hated U2, and that made me wonder why he would want to come along to "Lazer U2." I'm pretty sure he wanted to punch me in the face that night. Needless to say I was a little nervous when I heard that he would be at Curt's cabin for the trip we would be going on that summer.

That cabin trip was amazing, and to top it off Jeremy and I had quite a bit in common. I came home from that trip with some new friends and a much better idea of who I would be hanging out at school with my Junior year (I had been hanging out with James and a bunch of people who had just graduated.) That year was full of attending every HHS sporting event possible: girls volleyball, girls soccer, swimming, drill team, girls basketball, boys basketball, and football to name a few. All these trips were instigated by Jeremy, and his support was always due to his extreme loyalty to his friends who were on the various teams and his dedication to make his Senior year of high school one to remember. This loyalty and ultimate fan-ness has never worn off. It is rare for any kid, let a lone a punk rock kid with pink hair, to be so completely devoted to his school and any event going on there.

As far as my soccer games, he was co-founder of the BBQ VIP's, a supporters group for the soccer team who would BBQ at all home games and expertly heckle the opposition at home and away games. I don't think he missed a game in two years.

After he graduated, we continued to hang out until he left for his mission. This included a lot of down hill skating, extreme walking, camping, and just generally being awesome and ghetto.

He was one of two friends who I regularly kept in touch with during our mission years, and I still remember seeing him and James and my parents at the airport as I rode down the escalator. As soon as I was released, he made me go outside with him, Brady, and Landon to listed to a couple of tracks from A.F.I.'s new album. It was pretty gnarly after listening to strictly church music for two years.

I went straight from my mission to the "Summer of Hell" in Nevada selling scripture DVD's with Jeremy, James, Ryan, and Lindsay. I don't know how many times he came to pick me up in his parents green minivan when my car broke down that summer, but it was a lot. I also don't know how many times I saw him pull out his phone and use the calculator application to try to figure out how much he would have to sell per day for the rest of the summer to break even. There are so many great and horrible stories from those months. Jeremy hit some serious lows, but his loyalty to James overcame everything else and kept him out there.

We went straight from that adventure to the "crap house." I remember when Jeremy's parents were there to help him move in, his mom asked me, "do you think (the previous tenants) were cooking drugs in here?" I wasn't quite sure how to answer that. That was definitely one of the most fun years of my life. He and James encouraged me to put together a band to play at a Halloween party. That resulted in the most fun show I've ever played, as well as the formation of a band that would be a big part of my life for the next 18 months or so. He didn't miss a show, and somewhere in the world there exists roughly one billion photos of us playing (99.9% of which were taken by Jeremy). Other highlights were my nephews' visit, halo, pop-a-shot, Dr. Mario, trying to date girls, freezing in our rooms, $2 tuesday rollerskating, and of course Amish Country Football Club games with one side of the stands full of our friends. I also hit a low point in my life that year when I was completely broke and working for almost minimum wage at Wendy's. It was a lot of really hard work, and when paychecks arrived they were severely depressing. During this time, James and Jeremy were a big support to me.

He continued to be a best friend through my college years, including after he got married. He was determined to continue to be a good friend to us all and not drop off of the face of the earth. He succeeded, and in the process our entire group of friends got to know Hallie better and became close friends with her as well. He was and continues to be a great example to me of maintaining balance in life. His marriage, friendships, church callings, job, and hobbies all recieve the right amount of attention and care. I'm glad that he and Hallie will be having a baby any day now. They have been such stellar friends to Natalie and I. We are excited that we get to enter this new chapter in our lives at roughly the same time.

This is starting to sound like an obituary, so I'll close this extremely long post with one final somewhat mushy thought. If you were to scroll through the numbers in my cellular telephone device, you would not find his number. I almost put it in as soon as I got it, but then I realized if it was in there, I would forget it. Jeremy is the kind of friend that if I was stranded and my phone was damaged or lost, I could find a phone and call and he would do every thing humanly possible to help me. So happy extremely belated birthday, and thanks for being that kind of friend. Here's to another epic decade of friendship.