Relay for Life

It is dark and it is night and it is light and it is day, and it is grey and it is dawn, but it doesn't matter now, for while day turns to night and then into dawn, we will see no difference until we have walked our all. It is the unending hour of Relay.

As we walk, we remember last year, and all the things that happened. The giant pills. The folding frisbees. Lost jade. New faces. New new new. It was so new then. It was so fresh. But these memories have faded with the turning of a year. Threads spun then are twisted together into the present, and as we decode the present, our understanding of the past changes. Ergo, the past, our memories, changes.

Last year, I didn't know you. This year, I think I know you. Things are not the same. The sunset and sunrise will light the air differently. I'll use the same camera and maybe make it into a picture or two this year.

Dan and I laughed at Thompson, walking pill-in-pill with Sir.
Phil had to get photoshopped into a picture by me. Very poorly, I might add.
Perry...haha, Perry. Wow. Fighting with him at lunch was fun.

How these things change so oddly...

...and then there are some that don't.

Yaz walked for hours. It was beastly. I'm sure she'll do it again.
Truth or dare? Yeah. I don't play.
Jeff being a letch? That'll never, ever change, I think. Not until he falls in love for real and she makes him pay for it.

But this year, I will make it different. During the day that is night that is grey in the light, I will stand upon the grass and deliver a speech. This speech will be earthshattering. This speech will bring the clamoring crowds to celebration and from this fountain of inspiration, they will walk; no, they will dance. They will float upon the air and walk forever on this relay of Life. And by the end, no one will have heard me. And I will sit and I will cross my legs and smile, satisfied.

My speech will be this; it will be greater than this. My speech will say everything I cannot...

"Hear me, for I am the son of the son of the son of the and so on and so forth for seventy three generations descended from Confucius. And through me, some chord in my throat reverberates with his now ancient, once new wisdom. And though I have known very few of you for several years, I have known more of you for only one. And in this one year, I have seen and done actions that defy all wisdom, all learning. I regret nothing. Fate, which so bestrode me, and whose lash I have learned to hate, Fate has brought these threads of our lives together, starting from before my illustrious ancestor was born. Or so it would seem.

Life consists of choices. All the time. Choices, choices, choices. Our choices. And, fittingly, our choices turn back upon ourselves until the choices we make are affected by the choices we make. Choices, passed from generation to generation through the ages. This is what they call Fate, but only in retrospect. Your choices and the choices of every other person are obvious from the beginning. That is what they call Fate, in foresight.

So, I bow to Fate now. My Fate will be to unify, as it always has.

So Live and Choose and be what you will. Fate will have already brought us together. To me, we will never separate."

Not so long ago, I walked alone. In a way, I still do. But this walk has taken on dimensions I never could have steered it, thanks to my friends. If I hadn't been separated from my Old Friends, I might have never met you. If I hadn't reluctantly known someone, I might never have met Kim. If I had never met Kim, I wouldn't have met the entire Grosse Pointe gang. If I hadn't known the GP gang, I wouldn't have been invited to Relay or photoshopped those enormous Savage Bunny t-shirt designs. I wouldn't have invited Dan to come along. We wouldn't have randomly invited Thompson, who came to Dan's house that day. And the following summer wouldn't have been a crazy medley of fun.

Maybe I'm playing up my importance a bit. It was fated to happen. Phil knew Weijia already. Maybe these two groups would have united without my catalytic aid. But would I have found you guys? The wildest year of my boring life, washed clean in the mist of speculation. I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known...

But my choice would have been to find someone like you. And that makes it Fate. And all the romantic rollercoasters that came afterwards, that's choice. That's Fate, and quite alright.

As we walk, I remember the years, and all the things that happened. The detention. The water fight. Chinatown. New faces. New new new. It was so new then. It was so fresh. But these memories have faded with the turning of a year. Threads spun then are twisted together into the present, and as we decode the present, our understanding of the past changes. Ergo, the past, our memories, changes.

I want to hold onto this, to see you as new every day.
Fate was so arbitrary then.