A List of the Things I Love About My Life So Far

You can blame Michael for this.
 
I love listening to people express themselves, having people confide in me, making people laugh, jumping out of my chair when the Atlanta Hawks make a last second shot even though they’ve had like 10 straight losing seasons, exchanging drunken high fives with Donna and having her scream LAME when I refuse to smoke pot, Jones Soda, making the highest grade on a test, having the teacher read something witty I wrote on a paper and then mistakenly think I was the other guy named Matt because I never talk, Me and You and Everyone We Know, not being scared to take initiative and do things on my own, mocking RFIM’s, calling people by their name, being cool, being respectful to people who I disagree with and watching their surprise, and I love always being as honestly I can possibly be, even if it makes me look foolish.
 
I love that I survived my adolescence, that all my bad experiences added up to me being the most sexually desired virgin in the world through Open Diary, that in high school I could get mocked all day and still have the confidence to hit jump shots over 6 foot guys in basketball, that I can handle any criticism now, and I love that I never ever have to be 12 years old again.
 
I love Haruki Murakami, Cynthia Ozick, Gilbert Adair, Chris Wilson, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Vladimir Nabokov, Jonathan Foer, Mil Millington, John Steinbeck, B.S. Johnson, reading new authors, reading obscure authors, reading Erin’s short stories, editing Heather’s papers, that excerpts of my diary entries won the award for “best work” in my creative writing class, using cheesy metaphors, and I love the moment when I perfectly capture how I feel in writing.
 
I love Open Diary because I feel more loved here than anywhere else, Brittainy because she’s always together emotionally despite all the nonsense in her life, Erin because I can share my excessive shyness with her and feel normal, Kate because I can’t help but become excited whenever I talk to her, Michael because he never gave up and won’t care that I stole his exercise, Brittany because she really values it when I listen to her, Yours For Now because I can always count on her to give juicy updates and not be too sappy, Savvy because she says things like “now I can send you eggs” and does, Mary because she puts her heart into anything she undertakes and really wants to bring justice to the world and not just herself, Miranda because she accepts that my football team is better than hers, TheNewMrs.Kingbecause she has read me forever and her entries are never pretentious, SLP to Be because she’s taught me that girls actually do like sex, Em because he really cares about people and I think he understands, Mairead because I can’t say her name without smiling (or say her name correctly for that matter), Ryan because he really cares if I read his entries, Jackie because she reminds me to consider the consequences of my words, Cucuboth because he’s actually a perfectly fun guy when he stops thinking about how awful he is, Lindsay because she reads Haruki Murakami and lives a shockingly scandalous lifestyle, SeulmentBanana because her entries always make me laugh, Steph because she’s a good kid and is going to make a good adult, Kristy because she’s the most responsible person that I know, and I love the rest of you because you’re actually going to care that I left you off this stupid list.
 
I love riding with Kyle through the one main road in Milledgeville for no reason and telling him “we could save a lot of gas money and just listen to music at home,” walking with Kyle on GCSU campus and being the most cool, adorable, enviable, invincible, happy guys in the entire world, smoking cigars with Kyle on the porch of our old apartment and discussing bullshit life philosophies, the way I can say one word and cause Kyle to burst into laughter, Kyle’s voice (you guys think I have an accent), breaking into spontaneous song together, eating Kyle’s cooking and even pretending that I enjoyed “oysters and eggs” for a moment just because I knew it’d make him happy and I love having a friend that just likes you for who you are and never out of any obligation.
 
I love the first conversations I had with Heather and how I was taken with her immediately and how I remembered exactly who she was a year later, the way Heather can be so beautiful (physically and otherwise) without even trying, being made to feel like the only person in the world and making someone else feel the same way, having nothing to hide, completing each other’s sentences, the way years of confidences and secrets can be captured in a "we can skip that one" and a "thank you," playing board games, talking about books nonstop, having a first kiss and not feeling the least bit self-conscious about it, non-stop laughter, the fact that I flew to California to meet a girl and didn’t question it because that’s what I wanted to do, appreciating every moment together so much that you cancel plans to watch movies because that’s time you won’t be able to talk and experience each other as completely, goodbye hugs, being understood, and I love the fact that I’ve had as unsteady of a relationship as I have with Heather and I still love her as much as ever.
 
I love going on walks with my mother, playing Scrabble with my mother, listening to my mother ramble nonstop about a sick goat or a pregnant cow, telling my mother about my day and knowing she will always be interested, that I still talk to my mother every day, that I got my mother to read Wodehouse, that my mother loves Heather as much as I do, and I love the unique closeness of having someone who has been a daily part of your life since birth and has always loved and cared about you.
 
<div style=”MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt”>I love my dad for his goofy sense of humor and how, for all his flaws, he’d never intentionally hurt anyone.
 
And I love that this list is already very incomplete and that I’ve got so much more love to give in the future.