VCarr Coming to Terms

I am sitting here with one of my oldest and bestest friends. A friend who offers me cheese and an allergy pill every time I come over b/c she knows that 1. I love cheese and that 2. I am allergic to her cat. She is a friend that I’ve known since 5^th grade. A friend whose dog I just chauffeured from one side of the city to the other simply out of the kindness of my heart, but mostly b/c I wasn’t doing anything and needed an excuse not to spend another day aimlessly worrying about my future in Korea. And so here we sit, she watching lectures about diuretics and I trying to write an email notifying my future employer that I officially accept the job in Korea.  However, I can’t write the email.  (Don’t get me wrong, I will write the email. I will accept the job. I’m not stupid.) But for right now, at this moment, I simply really don’t want to. Because once I write that email, I will officially have to come to grips with the fact that I won’t be able to sit comfortably with my friend any more. In fact, I won’t be comfortable for a very long time because I am moving to place where no one will know me! No one will know that I love cheese! No one will know that cats make me sneeze!  And when someone needs a ride for their dog, they won’t turn to me. Because that is what you ask of your good friends; people whom you’ve known since 5^th grade. And I won’t know anyone since 5^th grade.  I won’t know a soul.  L*

*OK, that’s not completely true (but it does add a very nice dramatic finish). I will know one person. But he knows nothing of my food preferences, nor my pet allergies. And I’ve only known him for a year, which is nowhere near the 20-year friendship pre-requisite that comes from starting in 5^th grade.