You were brilliantly funny and desperately homesick. I wish you’d stayed, but I understand why you couldn’t. We got out of there together, even though she blamed me.

We weren’t “supposed” to be friends, but we grew up together and had more parallels than anyone realized. I wonder if we still do…and I hope so.

A college professor in a high school teacher’s body, you inspired a love of words and their true, multifaceted meanings.  Especially since we were all sitting on dictionaries.

We laid side by side and talked into the small hours of the morning. It was oddly intimate and clarifying and, when I woke up, you were gone.

You called me by my sister’s name for the entire year. Did you honestly not realize how offensive that was? Newsflash: I have always been my own person.

I was in over my head. You kept me breathing. I didn’t realize how much you meant to me until you took my hand and didn’t let go.

We had the best time in Hamburg. I can’t think of a Trabi without thinking of you and cracking up. That weekend was awesome – mostly because of you.

You treated me like crap for two years and then became my BFF. You catty little gay. I could have been one of your hags so much earlier.

We were good friends but I secretly hated you because you “stole” my best friend. It didn’t matter that I had new friends too, you were still competition.

We came from completely different worlds, and still live in them, but I always really liked you. Still do. Mutual respect and senses of humor. Such good things.