Day 10 – Someone you don’t talk to as much as you’d like to

Day 1 — Your best friend (Emily)
Day 2 — Your vices (Starbucks, etc)
Day 3 — Your parents (Linda & Jerry)
Day 4 — Your siblings (Emily, Graham & Lauren)
Day 5 – Your Dreams (Sing us a song…)
Day 6 — Someone that inspires you (Ernie Halter)
Day 7 — Your job (nothing)
Day 8 — Your favorite internet friend that you’ve never met (Krystin Behannon)
Day 9 — Someone you wish you could meet (Donald Miller)

Day 10 — Someone you don’t talk to as much as you’d like to
Another easy one. I like these easy ones that take little to no thought. Mostly because my brain is in a constant state of being fried at the moment and second because I always trust my gut reaction. Except for the other night, when it was 3:30 and I had an idea. There’s a certain time, between the hours of 2 am and 4 am when it is neither “this morning” nor “last night.” It’s a few hours of dead time when it is neither today, tomorrow or yesterday, it is only “right now.” For the most part, any ideas that happen during those two hours will seem senseless after a solid sleep.

Someone I don’t talk to as much as I’d like to?

Gregory Boylan.

instead of typing up the story of how Gregory and I met, I decided that you probably would rather see a very short, straight to the point comic. Lucky for you, I’ve been meaning to brush up on my paint creations.

So a quick recap. I was in St. Louis for the Urbana conference. I really needed to book a flight somewhere but the internet at our hotel was expensive and we decided to go to Starbucks so I could use the free wifi. There were eight million people and I sat down next to a stranger who was just my new friend Gregory disguised as a stranger. The internet wouldn’t work so I decided to talk to him. Then I found him on Facebook. Then I drew him a picture of a dinosaur for his birthday. and then I started praying for him every day.

It is really hard to pray for someone you never see or rarely talk to. Prayer is an act of love (or so says Madeleine L’Engle through one of the characters in one of her books) and it has the ability to make you incredibly fond of someone. If you want a great way to lose an enemy.. pray for them. Not that Gregory is an enemy, but prayer can make you fond of strangers. Some of the most random friendships I have were not built on fun experiences, late night conversations or spontaneous adventure. They were built on prayer. See Krystin Behannon. Side note: she has been referenced three days in a row!

I remember telling Gregory when we were at Starbucks that I don’t necessarily believe in “chance encounters” like striking up good conversation with strangers. I think we can drop the ball and let them become chance encounters or we can decide to invest in strangers. Worst case scenario, they stay strangers. Best case scenario, we make new friends.

There are a few theories I have for why I wish I talked to him more.
#1. The context is cool.
I never listened to that “don’t talk to strangers” rule and it has resulted in so many random conversations and connections. It’s never happened completely randomly, though. There’s usually a context; it’s usually a conversation sparked by a shirt or an overheard comment or even mutual interests that are plainly obvious. That was not the case. I just felt like being bold and talking to the person I sat next to.

#2. Gregory reminds me of Mitchell.
This one could be debatable because it has been almost 9 months, but I remember that when I started talking to Gregory, I made the mental note “he reminds me of Mitchell!!”  and I adore Mitchell. This thought occurred to me when I noticed how frequently being around Mitch made me wonder how Gregory was doing. Interestingly enough, Mitchell always got made fun of for looking like Jesus (once he was walking down the hill by GirlsTown and I pointed and said “Behold! The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”) but being around Mitchell didn’t make me think of Jesus. Just Gregory.

#3. His name is kind of like the name Gretchen.
I am big on names. Names and spellings and weird little similarities. One evening I wrote a letter to Gretchen and then a letter to Gregory and was blown away by the fact that I know two people whose names begin with a GRE. Not only do I know two people whose names begin with a GRE, but Gretchen is one of my favorite girls I know. I want Gregory to be my favorite boy that I know, because then my favorite boy and my favorite girl would both have names that start with a GRE. How many people can say that?

All theories aside, it’s probably just that I think he is really cool and I want to be his friend.

That sentence made me feel like a seventh grader. 🙂

ps. I am making sure to send this to Gregory in hopes that it will guilt trip him into talking to me more and I have no problem admitting that.

ps again – tomorrow’s prompt is “A deceased person you wish you could talk to.” Anybody want to guess who my no-brainer response is?

Day 11 — A deceased person you wish you could talk to
Day 12 — Your dream vacation
Day 13 — Something you’re looking forward to
Day 14 — Someone you’ve drifted away from
Day 15 — The person you miss the most
Day 16 — Someone that’s not in your state/country
Day 17 — The place you wish you were from
Day 18 — The person that you wish you could be
Day 19 — Something that makes you different
Day 20 — Your favorite television shows
Day 21 — Someone you judged by their first impression
Day 22 — Your pet peeves
Day 23 — The last person you kissed
Day 24 — The person that gave you your favorite memory
Day 25 — A life changing moment
Day 26 — The last person you made a pinky promise to
Day 27 — The thing you most enjoy doing
Day 28 — Someone that changed your life
Day 29 — Your talent
Day 30 — Your reflection in the mirror