Day 35

Put Me Thru by Anderson Paak | Instant Crush by Daft Punk

Considering that lent is very very soon…I gotta wrap this up.

That said, I still have a lot to say. Especially about these songs. Especially about this person.

Our abroad session had gotten cut short. We were all sent home early with about 6 weeks left. Trump was closing the borders. My roommate had a flight home that night. I was gone the next morning. Just like that.

I remember my brother’s picked me up from O’Hare. We went straight to our local pub, Stormies, for a beer.

In hindsight, Stormies was a perfect name for what was in store for the next chapter of our lockdown lives. Kind of like a calm before the storm.

That next morning I watched Baby Driver at around 7am unprovoked (great movie btw). Not really sure why I was up at that point especially in my college days, but everything felt uneasy. Life after that was uneasy. I didn’t really know what “lockdown” meant. I don’t think any of us did, but one thing was for sure was there was dread attached to it.

Every day felt like an apocalypse. You’d go outside and see people, not really sure if you could say hi. Stores and restaurants shut down. It became apparent to me that once the “happy hour” zooms with friends and video games faded, it was sink or swim time. I could use this time to better or worse myself.

I mentioned this earlier in my blog, but one of my favorite authors describes a blessing as a brief moment of air from what holds you under. At this time in my life, I was extremely blessed with a few things.

1. football

2. car rides with my best friend

These car rides date way back to high school with me and him. We would go on a drive, pack a lip, and talk about everything life had to offer. We both agreed around the same time in our lockdown era we that it was time to pick up right where we had left off.

We started making our afternoon drives a routine during COVID. We would talk about anything from girl problems to the consulting profession. Mind you, this dude is way, way smarter than I am, but managed to explain to me the corporate world in a nutshell before I even knew how to spell Deloitte.

Our drives was something I looked forward to every evening. A rock for my sanity. Another layer and core memory in our friendship.

These drives developed into a greater life for me and gave me purpose. He got me hooked on David Goggins, a former NAVY SEAL badass who runs ultramarathons and triathalons. We both entered our “Goggins” phase. We would head over to the public gyms and do Murphs which consisted of 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, and 300 body squats. We would run the stairs of the Wilmette beach shedding off any extra pounds that were left overseas.

We stopped drinking. Really not a need since no one was going out.

That routine, that lifestyle, that friendship made my life better. It made me better at a time where our world was not.

In the midst of our grind, the north star at the time was my trip to Maine with my best friends from college. This trip was extremely important for many reasons which will be left in the midst of the GWP and RAV4.

The day before my trip, we did one last drive. He played “put me thru” as we pulled up to Glencoe beach. This song, to me, signifies a deep exhale. We had gone through months of drives, with tears and laughs and everything in between. Broke ourselves down just to build it back up and got through it all. Just in time to embark on a new journey.

It was a blessing – A brief moment that holds you up from what pulls you under.

A sort of song that put a cap on such a special time in my life. This song reminds me of a time and friend that I will always cherish.

Fast track a few years later, I had just gotten let go from my first job out of grad. What else is there to do except call my friend, hit the spits, and get back on the road.

We just wrapped up dinner at athenian room. The scenes were a little different being in the city, but the vibes were all the same. He was dying to play Instant Crush by Daft Punk. I had never heard it so I thought why the hell not.

This song and that drive reminded me that despite my hardships, something was telling me everything was going to be okay. It was okay to close this chapter and enter a new one. Sort of a main character moment, I guess.

There aren’t many drives nowadays between him and I, but he knows just as well as I that all you have to do is say the word and hit the road with some GWP in hand. During such a dark/grey time, I’m forever grateful I was able to share some light with my best friend.