The Boy With The Shoes

The moment I laid eyes on him I knew we were meant to be together, but not in the way you might think. It's somewhat unexplainable, but I just knew that I had to be his friend, and have him be mine.

So of course some friends and I turned our "stalker mode" on to full power, found out his name, called campus directory, and took him to the mall with us. Immediately I knew my "feeling" had been right and that I had stumbled upon another lifelong friend.

But the surprises didn't stop with how comfortable and easy the friendship almost instantly was, because then The Boy With The Shoes took me to meet his family. Again the feeling is almost unexplainable except to say it felt like I was coming home. From the first night of meeting his parents, I had received a whole new family made up entirely with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings.

Eventually it was The Boy With The Shoes who sat with me as I dealt with my first heartbreak, while simultaneously dealing with my first case of mono. During this time I opened up and came out to him, which in turn led to him to come out to me. Of course this brought us even closer together as friends as stepped out of the closet together, figuring out who we were, and realizing we had each other even if no one else accepted us.

But of course most everyone accepted us, and our house turned into a huge party house for all the repressed Baptist college students. The Boy With The Shoes and I discovered we were amazing hosts together, knowing exactly what to do to feed off the other and get everyone at our parties comfortable and having fun.

Alcohol = Another bonding element of our friendship.

As years went by The Boy With The Shoes proved over and over again just how great of a friend he was, doing anything in his power to help a friend in need. I like to think I'm a nice person, but there were moments I was shocked at how far he would go to help his friends.

We obsessed over the same tv shows and movies, swapped stories about the boys we'd been with, walked around the house wearing heels being completely ridiculous, and held each other when we needed.

I got to go on his family vacations, they'd get me birthday presents, and the year of the blizzard I even got to spend Christmas with them all where they greatly eased the pain of being apart from my own family.

The Boy With The Shoes is the only person I know who knows exactly the right way to approach a subject that I try shutting off from the world and get me to discuss it and feel the emotions I try holding in. He is also the only person I know who knows exactly when to pour me another glass of gin and Diet Dr. Pepper rather than try talking about a subject that I'm not ready to discuss.

With The Boy With The Shoes I learned that a soul mate isn't necessarily someone that you are meant to be romantically involved with. A soul mate is a person that your entire being realizes is someone you want beside you for every moment of your life, sharing all the ups and downs and in-between. From that first moment I have never doubted that The Boy With The Shoes is one of my soul mates, and I'm so lucky to be someone that found him so easily.