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Monday, October 13, 2008

Blast from the past

So there I was, just minding my own business, bored, surfing through myspace, when I encountered a picture of a girl. Now to anybody else, this was just another girl, she looked normal, nothing special about her...but to me, she was special. I had one of those Phoebe (from Charmed) moments; I gasped and my vision was instantly transported 14 years in the past. Images rapidly filled my vision, starting from when I was 8, all the way till I was 14 years old. This girl that I stumbled across on myspace, was my childhood best friend, Stephanie.

I couldn't believe it! Imagine my surprise, I haven't seen her in 8 years and there she was. Well I instantly clicked her picture, but of course, her profile was private. Oh well, that's not gonna stop me, tentatively I clicked on the send message button and I wrote her a message. Truth be told, I wasn't sure she was going to recognize me or remember me, but boy was I wrong. She seemed as excited to see me (virtually) as I was to see her. She wanted to know all about what I was up to, even asked how my mom was.

It feels good to talk to her again, she was such a big part of my life, and truth be told, still is. I am the person I am today partly because of her. She's three years older than I am and I looked up to her so much growing up, I wanted to be just like her. And I grew up to be a little bit like her :)

Wow...Stephanie...I learned English because of her, hehe. I moved to CT from Puerto Rico when I was 6 years-old, but I lived in a hispanic community and went to a hispanic school, so I hadn't realized that I wasn't in a Spanish-speaking country. Until I was 8, when I used to sit on my front steps and watch the girl that lived across the street play. I wanted to be her friend so bad for some strange reason, but I was shy. I told my mom and she told me to just go over and say hi, but I was too shy for that, so my mom grabbed me by the hand and took me across the street where Stephanie was playing with her upstairs neighbor Carlitos. My mom didn't speak any English either, but thankfully Carlitos was hispanic and translated for her. Well Stephanie said I could play with them, but I realized then that she didn't speak Spanish. So everyday we would play together, but Carlitos was always with us, translating back and forth for us. I wanted to know what she was saying so bad, I wanted to be able to communicate with her on my own, and tell her things that were private to girls, because even though we didn't understand eachother, we grew really fond of eachother. So with my mind made me up, I went to my grandma (who was half German half Italian) to teach me to speak English. Determined, and with a set goal-to be able to speak to Stephanie without Carlito's help-I was able to learn enough English to have a conversation with her alone in about 2 months. And from then on we were inseparable. She helped me improve my English everyday, and so did her mom and grandfather. I spent all my time with her; after school (after I did my homework of course) I was with her. On the weekends, I spent the nights at her house.

She exposed me to a new world. New clothing styles, new t.v. shows, new music, etc. A lot of things I like today (like I said before) have been her influence

1. No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tori Amos, Metallica, Pearl Jam, and other music artists.

2. Beavis and Butt-Head, Daria, South Park, My So Called Life, Aeon Flux, and many other shows

3. Drop Dead Fred, Interview with the Vampire, Romeo & Juliet, The Frighteners, many other movies

Well you guys get where I'm going here, haha. The girl influenced me tremendously. I'm really glad I found her, and I'm glad that she's doing good.

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