Jonathan: Departure

After announcing my imminent departure from HSLDA I started looking for parties and social gatherings to attend, so that I could say goodbye to everyone. To my surprise, Missi seemed to be at the middle of most of them. I think I saw more of her in those last three weeks than I ever had.

Several instances particularly stand out in my mind. The first was a hiking trip to Old Rag Mountain with a big group of friends. All of us gathered in the Sheetz (Leesburg) parking lot early on a Saturday morning to drive out there. It took awhile to sort out who would drive with who, and at the last minute Missi decided to ride with Greg and me in my car. She sat in the back, and about halfway to the mountain I looked back and saw that she had fallen asleep. She was curled up on the seat, wearing a bright pink cap - and I almost swerved off the road as I suddenly realized how incredibly cute she was...

The second was when she called me on a weekend afternoon to ask for help in carrying a new desk up to her apartment. That doesn't sound like much, but you must realize that this girl had never asked me for help before. She was like, "I hate to be a bother, but there's no other guys around to help me carry this." Oh my word. Like it was really a bother. I would have paid money to help her carry stuff around.

Also, she put together TWO going-away parties for me. One at HSLDA and one at Greg's house. I had always hoped for a big bash when I went away, but had never expected her to be the one to put it on (with Vanessa's help). It seemed uncharacteristic for her, since we really weren't close friends.

Finally, the last couple days before I left I hung out with Missi and a few other friends, doing random stuff like bowling, watching movies, and packing. It was really weird, but the thought that kept echoing in my head was, "where did this wonderful Missi girl come from, and why didn't I go after her earlier?" We parted with a quick hug, and as I drove away in my moving truck I thought back on the last few days, and wondered if Missi really was sad to see me go, or if she was just being friendly.

I quickly dropped that thought, figuring that my Virginia friends were in the past, and that I needed to look forward to Washington. Most of them would probably forget me after a few months anyway. And Missi? A nice beautiful girl, but nothing could ever happen, so I'd better forget about her...