“In the absence of information, we fill in the blanks with our imagination.”  -Dave

Let me tell you the story of my best friend, Dave.  I met Dave at a Denny ‘s on Walnut street in Bloomington, Indiana.  I was a doe-eyed freshman in college and he was approaching his sophomore year.  Winter time had just begun and my gray Crown Victoria was still covered with piles of snow as I drove the large beast into the parking lot.  I made my way through the swinging doors of the restaurant and asked for an application. Dave was a server there.  It was thanks to Dave that I got that job, secured him as my roommate months later, and made my way towards the cynical adulthood I would come to know in college.

Dave remembered everything by year.  He would say, “Back in 1999 when the such and such album came out and the kids were drinking apple pucker and staying out too late.” Dave was in his 30’s but his references solidified the eras.  He would reminisce about decades of good tv shows that later generations would never know.  At any given time you can find him in a simple white-tee or a thrown-on button up with old jeans; electronic device in one hand, coffee in the other.  Dave and I were friends during some of the most influential years of our lives; making the most out of college between small venue concerts and house parties, sliding into classes hung over, and getting food from the dorm cafeterias.  We were living a micro-version of what we thought to be an adult life.  Dave and I were a staple in what was so cleverly referred to as “The Oregon Trail Generation.” Not only did we grow up playing outside, but we were on the cusp of the end of “the dream.”  We remained hopeful through philosophy classes, inspired through businesses classes, and moved by the hustle of the University setting.

Years later, Bachelor Degrees in hand with hopeful smiles and bright-eyed wonder we  walked through the doors of corporate America.   Corporate America giggled at us as we were escorted to our cubicles under horrible florescent lighting and our dreams of big money and managing were crushed. Welcome to entry-level.

We realized that we’d have student loans we could barely pay in shitty corporate jobs we never really wanted.  We’d spend the next three years being cynical and bitter.  We would write emails from corporate America and stay friends for what is going on 13 years now.  We see the millennials go through the same buzz-kill only they don’t seem to be able to manage not having gotten their way.

To this day we bantered on and he inserts one liners to make sense out of the world.  We discussed how graffiti in the bathroom had approached an all time low due to updated Facebook status and Instagram photos.

Dave still discusses life in years and we aren’t as cynical as we once were.  We are often searching for meaning in life through banter.  Looking back I now understand that the important part was the friendship.  The important parts, the really important ones in life are relationships.  They always have been and always will be.