© Knock Me Off My Choos

Prologue: November 5th. 2013

November 5th, 2013 

Being alone never seemed to faze me much; not until he barged into my life in a whirl wind of bright colors and pep. My mother, bless her, was never really home. She worked all sorts of crazy hours at the hospital and my father was really just a picture on our walls. Don't misunderstand me, he loves us and we him, but his job as a pilot kept him away from home most of my childhood. He'd come home for all of 7 hours and be off in a flurry of rushed goodbyes and I love yous. So obviously when my lonely seven year old self was ambushed in the community swimming pool, I found myself clinging to the small bit of normalcy he offered with his half of a soggy Twinkie. Of course I'm talking about my best friend Rhyz.  

Rhyz was and probably will always be an eccentric bundle of eclectic fun. He has always known who he is and what he wanted in life, while I just ambled along. In my worst of times he has always been there with his silly smile cheering me up, and literally shoving me out of my comfortable bubble of normalcy, normalcy that he unknowingly gave me. 

I'd always been what most called a realistic dreamer, a walking contradiction. I could spend hours creating a perfect fantasy world and then minutes tearing apart all the inconsistencies. I was you're A-typical high school student. I'd been trying to 'find' myself and well my purpose in life. Currently, I'd chosen tutoring in order to have a nice little activity other than track to add to my transcripts for college.  

But really, isn't that always the way these stories start? I had good grades, amazing friends and a loving family but sometimes I just wanted to escape. I couldn't help but feel that maybe I was missing out on something. Something great. Something magical. Something I often liked fantasizing about. But reality always found a way to settle in and ruin the magic my dreaming had weaved.  

Stupidly, I decided to tell Rhyz about this and my fears. And my dear sweet best friend, being the crazy that he was, always loved to shove me face first into what I deemed a scary situation. He has this annoying little motto about how to live life, something about enjoying all of life's obstacles.  

Funny enough, I think the last shove is what probably got me in this mess to begin with.... 

- HOLLY SANZ

© Knock Me Off My Choos