The Wonder Years

Friday is college graduation.

It's been an interesting ride, to say the least. After attending three universities, living with nine different roommates, making countless lifelong friends, and scribing one hilariously amateur blog, I am graduating in four years. While I am a big fan of self-deprecation, being able to say I got my diploma on time, especially after considering my many misadventures, is something that I am pretty damn proud of. Never in a million years did I think I could get through this; I definitely didn't get through it alone. I got by with a little help from my friends, The Wonder Years-style. While my future is more uncertain than the ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey (unless you read the book), this week I really want to reminisce about college life one last time. Here are some of my favorite stories, in no particular order, that I am willing to share. I hope you enjoy them.

1. Catching a cat with a trashcan and a 100 ft Ethernet cable - Freshman Year
My freshman year I lived on the second story of an apartment complex that backed up next to a forest. A plethora of wildlife lived back there, but for about a month a lone orange kitten caught our eye as it would constantly duck under the fence and sit at the bottom of our steps. One day my roommates and I decided that we would catch the cat and give it to the humane society. And what is the best way to do that, you ask? Well, we bought a can of catnip, grabbed our trashcan, and strapped our 100-ft Ethernet cable (crazy to think that 4 years ago we didn't have any access to Wi-Fi!) to the lid. As I stood on the balcony of our apartment, we waited for the kitten to investigate the strange contraption, closing the lid shut as soon as the cat went inside the trashcan. If that story isn't convincing young people the importance of college, I don't know what is.

(Just to give you an idea how weird we were, my frosh roommies and I would put this clown vacuum in the most random places, including the shower and closets, in order to scare each other.)

2. Beating Super Mario 64 - Freshman Year
I'll take it to my grave that Super Mario 64 is by far the single greatest videogame ever created. I remember growing up getting so frustrated that I couldn't beat it and vowed that I someday would take down Bowser once and for all. So my cat-nabbing freshman roommates Erich, Robbie, Evan, and I spent over three months slowly chipping away at the game until we finally collected all 120 stars. Easily the highlight of my time at UTSA. Hopefully I will not have to take it to my grave that this was the highlight of my life. Kidding. I topped it already... by winning several championships and MVP awards on NBA 2K.

3. The Cactus Incident - Freshman Year
We're still at UTSA here, specifically early December after finals were completed. We lived within ten minutes walking distance to a Whataburger and late one night we decided it was time we embarked on the journey for some BoB sausages (Breakfast on a Bun, fools. It's an inside joke.) Granted, the ten minutes were through the dark and ominous woods. Also keep in mind we're living in arid San Antonio. Long story short, I may or may not have fallen into a cactus plant and let me tell you that, contrary to popular belief, falling into one does not feel like falling onto a beanbag chair. I feel like I was pulling out thorns well after Valentine's Day.
The cactus may have won that battle, but I won the war. Shortly into the spring semester that area was demolished for a shopping center, so that cactus is long gone. One time we tried to get into the machinery to take it out ourselves, but that's a different story.

4. Growing a hideous beard - Freshman Year

(Freshman Ryan...so much I want to tell you, but...I can't.)

5. "No onions!" - Senior Year
A late night stop at Taco Bell where I refused to give my order, only yelling "No onions!" to my roommate Joe. Of course, Taco Bell still gave me onions.

6. Jackhammering My Leg - Junior Year
The summer before I started school at Texas A&M I worked as a contractor's assistant here in College Station. We mainly worked odd jobs, including assembling door frames, ceiling fans, etc. On one occasion we were asked to do demolition, jackhammer and everything. We were taking out a concrete staircase when part of a rock landed right above my ankle. I could see my bone. I got several stitches. I won't post the pictures out of respect for my right ankle. Oh, and you guys.

7. Road tripping to Miami - Sophomore Year

My sophomore year at OU culminated with the football team making it to the National Championship game in Miami to take on the Florida Gators. My friends Cale and Chase joined me in the drive from Houston. Chase even bought a $600 radar detector to help shave some time off our drive. (A good three hours at that. I promise we were cruisin' at a safe 105.) While the game didn't exactly go the way we planned (playing a Florida school in Miami did not do us any favors), I had an incredible time checking out the east coast, even getting a chance to catch the sunrise in Daytona one morning.

(I know what you're thinking... I'm so indie and cool.)

Despite Cale believing he was about to be impaled by a post on the road, an Asian man screaming for me to enter my debit card's "PIN NUMBAAAAAA" at a gas station, and my late shift from 11 PM-6AM ending with me hallucinating that a crane had fallen onto the highway (true story, I was a zombie after staying awake for that long), we made it safely back to Houston. Once we were back, Chase returned the radar detector for full price, saying it was a gift that he didn't want. What can I say, it is the Sooner way.

(Also, we snuck onto the apartment complex where Dexter lived.)

8. Driving into a tornado - Sophomore Year
One of my OU roommates, Rick, was driving from Norman to drop a friend off at his house in Edmond, Oklahoma. Naturally, I decided to tag along. Naturally, a natural disaster formed mere miles from us as we ignorantly listened to Kings of Leon.

9. "This isn't Homeward Bound." - Senior Year
My friends and I were at the lake house enjoying a day out in the sun when two mangy, soaking wet dogs ran down the steps to where we were laying out. After several of the girls oohed and aahed at the pups, my friend Hupp snapped at them to get out. After several shocked moments, Hupp turned to the rest of us with a triumphant grin on his face, saying "This isn't Homeward Bound." I'm not sure he would have caught that cat with us freshman year.

10. Bringing back Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark - Forever
I bought bootleg DVDs of the entire series to both shows and got my friends hooked on them again. I even tried to use them as after-date hangouts on an occasion or two. It may or may not have worked...because who can resist a college-aged kid who watches scary children's shows?

11. Getting my Aggie Ring.

(I'm in the club now)

12. Rickesh's 21st Bday - Junior Year
A group of us spent the night on the Riverwalk in San Antonio and stayed at his family's unopened hotel by ourselves. When my friend Janisch believed the party was dying down - "This just went from a 21st birthday party to a hostage situation." Typical.

13. Going with Rickesh as Turk and JD for Halloween - Senior Year

(Awesome on so many levels....wrong hair color...wrong race...why not?)

14. Nick vs. the Hornet's Nest - Senior Year
My roommates and I have had a year-long war against the hornets that live outside our apartment. When I first moved in, a terrifying nest of over twenty hornets was located at the top corner of our living room window. Nick, who had just gotten back from Germany less than a month beforehand, decided the best way to get them was to throw an empty bottle at the nest. He missed, instead shattering the window. The hornets went everywhere. Welcome back to America.

15. Having a NASCAR-themed Christmas Tree - Junior Year
My junior year roommate Jeremy loved NASCAR. I came home one night to him and his girlfriend putting up a small tree in our living room, insisting that they do it alone. I came back out of my room thirty minutes later to see that the tree is decorated with nothing but Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ornaments. It was ridiculous. We did have a Darth Vader as our angel on top, though.

16. Road House Intramurals - Senior Year
So close...still the best basketball team I've ever played on.

17. The Colorado Trips - Junior/Senior Year

I'm blessed that I am able to take friends to my family's cabin out in the mountains. We have been the past two Januarys. Between the long road trips (and marathon games of Catch Phrase), the skiing (and finally getting the courage to go down some Blues), the hiking (Garden of the Gods is incredible), the snowball fights ("I said no ice balls!"), the casino gambling (and losing), the charades (T.Whitt is the master), and the high school basketball-watching (At the girls' 2 hr long game..."Keep the clock runnnning"), these are some of the best times I've had in the past four years.

18. Schooling Ryan Swope - Senior Year
Granted, we were playing basketball at the Rec Center. He is a star receiver on the football team so if he wanted to end my life, I'm sure he could. However, it was pretty cool dueling with him while a bunch of people watched. Hitting the game-winning three-pointer on him more than made up for getting dunked on, right?

19. Sharing my first short story - Senior Year
Most of my life I have written. As early as seven years old, I would write my own Goosebumps and Animorphs stories in the backseat during long road trips with my family. I never let anyone read my stories though, fearful that I would get laughed at. Fifteen years later, I'm still fearful, but I started this awful blog as a way to slowly become more comfortable with sharing things. I just finished my first short story for class to mixed results. Baby steps. Thanks for sticking with me.

20. Sharing my testimony in Germany - Junior Year

(Just signing some autographs...NBD.)

I went with my hometown church to Germany for their annual baseball camp mission trip one summer. I was in charge of batting, which is funny because I hadn't played an official game of baseball in over ten years. That didn't stop the German children from asking if I was going to be a professional athlete after bombing some into the outfield (I felt like a BA). The trip was life-changing for so many people as we were able to share Christ with children and parents alike. On the last night, I volunteered to share my testimony in front of hundreds of German citizens. With the help of a translator, it was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life. I am so very grateful that I could do it.



I'm sure there are plenty of stories that I'm forgetting, but I should really get back to studying for finals. Thanks everyone.

-PB (very cool video)

The Hydra: Our Key to the Past

Spring Break 2011 came and went as quickly as Texas A&M's stint in the NCAA tournament, and as Charles Dickens once said, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times."  The best of times because for my group of friends (a hodge-podge of old high school friends and newer college buddies) Spring Break usually means a trip to the one of the greatest places on earth, my family's lake house on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas.  Many of us hardly have time to keep in touch during the school year, but as soon as mid-terms are over it's almost like we never left Mrs. Waggoner's 12th grade Bio class.  Regardless of what college we attend or how long it's been since we last spoke, the Hydra (our nickname for the house) serves as our safe haven from the rest of the world.  Leroy, my Comm professor, would call it "hyper-reality".  However, it was the worst of times not only because it felt like the end of an era with graduation looming, but also because Spring Break will always be the dark reminder of a lost friend as well.

The Hydra was built in the '50s by my Great Uncle Ralph, who left it to the rest of our family once he passed.  I grew up spending most of my vacations at the house, so when my high school friends and I were looking for a "Last Hurrah" before heading out for our freshman year of college, it was a near-perfect choice (our first choice would have been Lost island, but I digress).  We spent an entire week there, lounging by the lake by day and climbing the tree to the roof to gaze at the stars by night.  We roasted marshmallows and played games; without a doubt a bond was formed that week at the Hydra.  While we were all friends to begin with, we suddenly became inseparable.  The eight or so of us, most of whom had barely even known each other in high school, were now closer than the Bluth family from Arrested Development (probably a bad reference, but that show had a lot to do with our friendships).  I am fairly certain I spent over 2/3rds of my freshman year road tripping all over the state to visit my friends, making sure that we would all stick together.  Attending UTSA as a frosh, I was a literal Roadrunner.  We spent enough time at the Hydra that the rest of my family should have started charging rent, with possible interest(s) as well.

 (From left: Janisch, Alli, Nick, Alya, Me in 2007)

One of my friends that was a part of the original trip to the lake was Alli Maloney.  Without sounding too cliche, she was the sweetest girl I ever met.  She hardly ever had a bad word to say about anyone and always went out of her way to show her support for me, whether it was planning a surprise birthday gathering for me, giving me relationship advice ("what were you thinking?!") or creating ridiculous "Team Smith" shirts with the rest of the group.  She gave me a cross necklace for my 19th birthday and I never took it off.  She was a great friend.  She was particularly in love with my nieces and nephew, who were all less than two years old when she first starting showing up at the house with the rest of my friends.  She always did her best to make it to the Hydra, no matter what else was going on in her life.  She was a joy to be around and we were lucky to have her in the group.  However, for some reason or another I began to take her for granted over time.  Instead of welcoming her over whenever my sister and her kids were in town, I tried to find reasons to not call her.  Her near catchphrase "When are the babies coming to town?" quickly went from cute to annoying.  I became selfish to the most selfless person I knew.  

I moved away from Texas my sophomore year and consequently my friends and I slowly began drifting apart.  College life consumed us all as we began to make new friends and lost more and more time for our old ones.  What used to be our bimonthly Hydra trip turned into one single trip in late February of our sophomore year.  Although it was just like old times, the feeling that things were not like they used to be was thick enough to grab out of the air.  I remember leaving that trip feeling that everyone was less nostalgic than ever for how close we used to be.

Then, a few weeks later, Alli died in a car accident.

It was the last weekend of Spring Break (two years ago to this day, March 21st, actually) and I remember sitting in my living room with my friend, shell-shocked and bewildered.  My mind was swimming with thoughts to how I had treated her recently: How the hell could I have been so resentful towards someone who showed nothing but genuine interest in my life?  How could something so horrible happen to someone so good?  Why not me?  I was angry with God, but really I was furious with myself for not being a better friend to her.  I remember standing outside my driveway in the beautiful Texas sun, calling all of my closest friends, one by one, and telling them the heart-wrenching news.  It was the worst time of my life.

My friends and I, who normally reconnected at the Hydra, found ourselves returning together for our best friend's funeral.  Seeing everybody mourn her was truly haunting.  She made such an impact on us without even realizing it.  To that effect, the biggest tragedy in our lives made our bond stronger.  I don't like to talk about what happened much, but very rarely does a day go by that I don't think about her.  An avid artist, her drawing of a flower hangs on the wall of my room and the cross necklace that she gave me now hangs protectively over my rear-view mirror.

Flash forward two years and most of us are beginning to feel the pressure of the real world breathing heavily down our necks.  I'll be the first to admit I have no idea what is in store for me upon graduation.  It is a scary feeling that I have not been able to shake for months.  We arrived at the Hydra and for the first time, it felt like time didn't stop.  The real world pressures are more tangible now, with several of my friends already out with full-time jobs.  No matter how much we want it to be false, the days of packing our things on a Tuesday afternoon and spending three days at the Hydra are over (one of the greatest male bonding trips of all time, BTW.)

One of the last nights during our final Spring Break Hydra trip we sat on the roof, staring at the stars just like our first time before college.  The cathartic feeling that consumed my soul made me shiver in the cool night air.  Although I'm not the same doe-eyed teenager from that original trip, I felt like a part of us never really left.  I could almost picture Alli taking photos of the lake while we continued our four-year argument on whether that was an airplane, a shooting star, or a satellite in the sky.

I'm not the best Christian by any means.  I have my struggles and my insecurities with life, but no matter how stubborn I am to try and figure life out myself, I do believe He has a plan.  Two summers ago I was able to share my testimony with several hundred people in Germany during a mission trip.  Despite being a terrible public speaker (the language barrier helped), I had enough confidence to talk about my friend Alli and her love for God.  No matter how angry I was with myself and with God, I came to the conclusion that she did not die in vain but that she shaped countless lives while she was with us.  I miss her and will always wish I had been a better friend.

As I drove back from the Hydra on Sunday, I noticed the cross necklace dangling from my car's dash, only further reminding me that although she may not be with us anymore, she is not lost. 

For me, the Hydra has been the location of many of the most important events in my life.  I have learned the true meaning of friendship and experienced a little bit of what love was like there.  I've found out how it feels to jump off of a roof and what the inside of a sink feels like.  I have watched countless bad movies there as well as experience countless shooting stars (Okay, maybe some satellites too, Alli) in the night sky.  But most importantly, I've learned that no matter how old we get, we will never forget the family we made there.

-PB