by Matt Mahan

Created on: June 25, 2008

Many people look at friendships in varying ways. Some see a friendship as the ability to always have someone close to them, either physically, mentally, or emotionally. Unfortunately, not all friendships stand the test of time. People grow older, apart, have their own lives, get married, raise children.live. Friendships to me are a little different. Not better or worse, just different. I see friendships as paths. That's right I said paths, like in the woods. Paths in the woods usually are not very far apart and sometimes come together for short distances before they spread apart again.

In high school, I had a group of very close friends, my circle if you will. Right smack dab in the middle of that circle was my best friend Eric. Eric and I met as skinny, geeky freshman, under a table in the lunchroom during a food fight. After that we were inseparable. We thought the same way, could grow "beards" shaggy and patchy as they were, even rode the same type of bicycles. The other friends in my circle were all great people, lots of fun and we all had things in common, but not like Eric and I. We were Batman and Robin. It was the two of us who convinced 12 other students to join us in a phone booth to break the school record set four years earlier by my brothers class. No matter the odds, Eric always had my back and I had his. Eric was the type of friend that it did not matter how God awful I looked out on the dance floor, he would still say he knew me, even when others ran and hid. I was THAT bad.

When senior year came around and we finally graduated, I left for Marine Corps basic training and Eric received a scholarship to college. Over the next four years, we would on occasion hang out when we could, he came and saw me at base, and I came home often. Paths going apart and coming together. Now matter what, where, when, or how long we had been apart, when we did catch up with each other, it was like we were inseparable again.

To this day, I am blessed for that only distance separates us. Our paths still are slightly apart, but always on the horizon, they can merge at any point. I have always said that if a person has one friend that no matter what, no matter the time of day or night, under any and all circumstances, that friend will be there, you can consider yourself a very fortunate person. Even if we never were to talk again for whatever reason that may be, I will always cherish the friendship that Eric and I shared.

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