I Wanted to Have Some Fun

In a recent post, I mentioned that I had a hard time getting along with the other guys in school due to my inadequacies at sports.  That didn't mean that I didn't join in on physical activities, though.  I occasionally did, and this is the anniversary of two of those times where I had the most fun.  I just wish there had been more of them.  The first time is from 1987, the last day of school.  I was in band and had to be there for graduation practice.  Mid-morning, I saw some of the older band members running into one of the buildings.  Recklessly, I decided to follow them.  They had gotten into some mischief and were now kind of hiding out.  After one of them left (he never returned that day),I hung out with the other two.  We helped out setting up the gym for the ceremony and joined in with the rest of the band later on for the practice.  Afterwards, the band was supposed to have an event to celebrate the end of the school year, but it was just the three of us who did so.   Although we almost did something else, we had a water gun fight across campus.  We even went into some of the buildings!  The water guns were weak and we actually got wetter from the light rain instead of from them.  I developed a rapport with one of those juniors.  For some reason, I could more easily talk to him than to my peers.  I would come to think of him as the role-model/big brother that I needed at the time.  things turned a little awkward by the end of his senior year.  While I would see him a few time after he graduated, I never got to tell him how much he meant to me.  The second time came in 1990, again at the end of school.  We had just finished graduation practice, when I heard a friend plan to play some basketball.  I asked if I could join in. I was too embarrassed to have friends come over to my house, and they lived too far away to be allowed to go there, even if I had been invited.  The only reason I could go then was because no one knew I was going.  He drove us to his home, and we played some after some other guys arrived.  I sucked, and being four to five inches shorter then them didn't help.  It was warm, and we stopped to go swimming at a neighbor's pool.  My friend even gave me a pair of shorts to wear as mine dried out.  A few more guys came by to play video games, but I had to leave.  I got a ride from another friend, and he dropped me off.  This gave me a chance to give both friends letters that included ways to contact me, since they were the two I most wanted to stay in touch with.  While I saw the second from at community college before he transferred a year early, neither one contacted me, because they forgot or lost their letters.  I guess I should have trier harder and sooner to tell them how much they meant to me.  I still regret not staying in touch with the three of them and wonder what could've been.  Even though it had been over twenty-five years since I last saw them, sometimes it feels like only one or two.  Still, better late then never.  Thank you for letting me feel like one of the guys, even when I felt like an outsider.  Thank you for letting me be myself, free of my hang-ups and insecurities.  Finally, even though I know it wasn't exactly reciprocal, thank you for being three of my best friends.  And you still are, even after all of this time and distance between us.  It is time to have some more fun.