I too was just thinking about this yesterday. I received a phone call from my oldest friend for the first time in months that made me super happy.

We met the first day of school after the Xmas break in grade six. His family had just emigrated from Ireland and so he was the new kid at school. On the lunch break outside in the yard the biggest, baddest 8th grader started pushing him around and so Robbie "beat the crap out of him" to the extent that any 6th grader can. Afterwards I picked his hat up off the ground, wiped it off and gave it back to him and introduced myself. (Yes I apparently was kissing ass!)

We then went to high school together, went separate ways for university, traveled to a dozen or so countries together afterwards, helped build out first houses together, etc. but had never talked about that day or the way we met.

In hind sight if I thought about it I am sure that was probably not the way we met as memories change over time. I was in his wedding party and the night before the ceremony he and his wife hosted family and those that had traveled from afar. He took that opportunity to stand up and give each one of us gifts and tell a little story about why each person was there. And the story he told about me was exactly what I just told you. Our memories did not diverge at all.

He is a super great dude with an incredibly beautiful and smart and funny wife and daughter. Well traveled, super well read, ridiculously athletic, professionally accomplished, morally grounded, everything. Just everything. I am so grateful to have him in my life. Unfortunately the last time we spent any amount of time together was when his parents were in palliative car a few months ago and they died within 24 hours of each other.

I am also lucky enough to have four other people in my life that I have known since grade 10 and who I am in touch with all the time. They are much different than me in the sense that they did not go away to school, have never traveled much, don't read much, etc. but I fucking love those guys. Twice a year we get together at one of our cottages and shoot guns, fish and hunt for our food, cook up ridiculous amounts of things, drink a lot of booze and smoke a lot of weed. They are absolute hosers and I love them.

And all of those guys would drop everything to help you out at a moments notice no questions asked. That has been put to the test several times and they have all passed with flying colors. Another thing I love about them is that, while they are "super manly", inevitably during our weekends the conversation turns to serious things and no one gives a fuck if you are "sensitive" or something hurts you emotionally or makes you cry. This last meeting was especially tough as the sixth member of the group was just the first person I know to have died from a disease; bone cancer. And that is another story all together but to give you a snap-shot of his character: he was married about ten years ago to a woman that had three kids and she was diagnosed with cancer the week after they got married and died within a year. So he adopted the three girls and raised them to be awesome chicks and now he is dead too. He went from being a single guy to a single dad of three girls in one year. And a great one at that. That is a true testament to his character.