Comedic Bonding

When I was watching this week's 30 Rock, I started thinking a lot about friendship. Then as I was re-reading parts of Mindy Kaling's book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me I started thinking about people I was friends with in High School (prompted somewhat by her discussion of Monty Python).

My freshman year a group of mean girls turned their back on me due to extensive jealousy on their part. It hurt really bad. It shaped a lot of who I am today, actually.

But my sophomore year I fell in with a group of great friends, people who just got me. We were a mixed bunch and I think if you saw us from the outside you'd wonder what the heck we were doing with each other. There was Holly my beautiful, intelligent, amazing best friend; Alison our resident athlete, cynic, and all around straight-man; Laura our smart, excitable, band geek; and then there was me (I don't really know how to categorize myself, probably a nerdy socialite, which sounds like a contradiction, but I made it work).

Looking at our group there didn't seem to be much to hold us together besides our statuses on the Honor Roll and what we sometimes were caught reading. But from the inside we knew. We all had the same sense of humor and taste in comedy that soldered us together as friends and comrades. There were endless nights spent in Alison's basement or my living room watching things like Monty Python and The Mummy. We could make any mundane or b-list movie into something hilarious and quotable to our little group.

I have such fond memories of this time in my life. We went to such simple, but rewarding lengths to make ourselves laugh and keep ourselves happy. Often we also enlisted the help of our friend Jon to sweeten the deal some. (Like the time we sneaked the picture into one of our favorite teacher's lab room, or the time we narrated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in spanish using sock puppets...which then became permanent fixtures in our lockers, the many times we created 'blow darts' after seeing the Mummy 2, even down to our ridiculous Apple Brown Betty recipe homework--in which we employed a sledgehammer.)

I believe true friendship is rare, and I am grateful I had these people in my life for the time they were there. Even though we're not still close and now are scattered across the globe, I'm grateful that each of us has been able to achieve our respective dreams...and continue dreaming more. I'll always consider them true friends.

I'm grateful for this reminder, that humor is something that can bond souls, and that it helps make life really happy -- even in the simplest of ways. Thanks for teaching me that lesson, guys.

"Remember, true friends are always together in spirit." -- Anne of Green Gables

xoxo.