Wall of Fame

Every solid, life-long friendship has an identifiable beginning. For Mary and I, it was Post-It notes - I guess post-its have a unique purpose for everybody. In college, we had an entire wall of our dorm room covered with them. It didn't start out that way, but as the year went on more and more things found their way onto the Wall.

Before you get too enraptured by our incredible work ethic and study habits, these post-it notes were not formulas. They weren't even vocabulary words. Really, they had nothing to do with studying or education whatsoever - they were a year's worth of inside jokes, hilarious quotes, and single words that could make either one of us crack up at even a hint of the slightest utterance. It was a year's worth of building blocks to one of the strongest friendships I'll ever have in my entire life, all randomly posted to the wall of a dorm room at UCLA from two people who didn't know each other three months ago and were thrown into the same situation with the same concerns, fears, and goals.

Admittedly, we were the outcasts of our floor, and that's where most of the comments began. We were the two soccer players on a floor of people who had studied their whole life to go to UCLA. We were the two who had to get up at 5:30am for 6am strength training and be able to shower and make it to 8am lecture when the rest of the floor didn't set their alarms to go off until it was enchilada day in the cafeteria. We were different. One day we decided to count the number of times daily we heard the phrase, "are you guys, like, twins?" Which was funny and ironic to both of us because Mary is, in fact, an identical twin. To the UCLA-ers, however, both blonde, both blue eyed, both soccer players = twins. So began the Wall of Fame.

We started to write down every inside joke, every hilarious quote we heard, and other one word reminders of things that would set us off into laughter in a heartbeat. It was our outlet. It was our connection.

I thought of our Wall of Fame today, seven years later, because my best friend Nate' just finished telling me the greatest story ever about getting hit on at a New Year's Eve party. A drunk, nasty, middle-aged married white man definitely said to her, This is my song. It should be your song, too, because you've got junk in your trunk. I have made the executive decision to reinstate the Wall of Fame with that quote. And Mary, in your honor I will add:
fanny-pack guy
damn! I dropped my highlighter
and Mary, can you turn off the lights??

Love you guys, and welcome to the Wall of Fame.