News from Georgia

Old friend of mine from Georgia just got engaged! It was a happy surprise :)
Since this morning, many good old memories are coming back to me...

She was one of the closest friend of my college roommate.
I remember her as a bravest and the most active person among all the girls.
I have so many good memories of her; she was very good and kind to me.
She did not see me as one of international students, but saw me as a person, treated me just like others, no judegement whatsoever.

Many memories are really crazy and adventurous.

Once, she tried to teach me how to drive. Driving seems really easy now, but back then, it was really scary to me. And without much of practice, she let me drive to Macon (closest big city) for shopping with other friends. And that was a big mistake. I almost hit other car in a big intersection.. Thanks god that she was sitting on a passenger's side so she quickly grabbed a steering wheel to avoid the accident... I'm sure I scared all of them that time!

Another time was an adventure by bike. The town that the college was at, was in a countryside, so there was nothing much. It was fun just riding a bike, enjoying nature, but it got even better when we found an abandoned old elementary school. We explored the building and classrooms... I'd never forget that adventure with her.

The craziest of all happened right before her graduation day. She wanted to do a couple 'crazy' stuff before leaving. First, she wanted to climb the water tower on campus! So in the middle of night, her, my roommate and I sneaked out the dorm and we went to the water tower. I remember so well that my roommate and I pushed her butt to help her to reach the first step on a tower, but that step was too high to reach for her unfortunately... Another crazy stuff was 'swimming in a pool in the middle of night'. There was an outside pool and the door was always locked after hours, so what we did was climbing up the outer fence!!! I was really worried about being caught by campus police or someone... but nothing like that happened... truly, those experiences were so thrilling! She made my campus life so unique! To this day, she is still the "craziest" and "wildest" friend I ever have in my whole life!!!

Not all memories are the crazy ones.

On Thanksgiving holidays, she took me to her home with her for a whole weekend because I did not have anywhere to go, the dorm was going to be closed. Her grandma baked a peach cobbler for us; I still remember that moment. I remember what song was on the radio when we drove to her hometown...

So many good memories, and I feel lucky to have her as my friend, even though we don't see each other at all after her graduation (I saw her only once). People come and go. Even though how much I wanted to keep in touch with all of my friends, it won't happen if the other doesn't have desire to do so. So I'm really glad that she is still my friend even after more than a decade!! I cannot wait to go see her for the wedding! (and this is a good excuse to visit GA too!!)