One Life Can

My friend, ML, and I have spent many a sleepless night together. Get your minds out of the gutter. She was my study buddy in college. We were both in very demanding majors and had an insane course load. It seemed like our studies were never ending. But in ML I found a rare kinship…a fellow insomniac. When you’ve always run on just 4 or 5 hours of sleep to find someone who keeps odd hours with you is a special thing indeed. It still makes me laugh to think of the phone calls at 3 a.m.: “Hey, I need 20 minutes of sleep before I get back to studying. Call me in 20 to wake me up.” To this day ML is the only person I don’t find odd at all to ring me at 3 a.m. just to chat. She’s the only person I would call that late and know she’ll answer.

One very special thing we’ve shared through the years is the tradition of calling each other on Valentine’s Day. It’s not a romantic thing, just something special shared between two who share bonds beyond friendship and romance. No matter where we are in the world–she in Sweden, I in the Netherlands, she on the East Coast, I on the West–I know I’ll always have my Valentine. In fact, it’s sort of become an unspoken game to see who can call or message the other first right after the stroke of midnight on February 14th. Thankfully, we’ve both had very understanding significant others over the years who know that there’s no need for jealousy. It makes me smile to think that when we’re crotchety old fogies in our rocking chairs that we’ll still be making those Valentine’s calls. Thank you for being part of my life, my funny Valentine.