Nick's and Super Taco

So today, I took a LONG walk out to Super Taco. By myself. In the scorching sun. It was awesome. Don't get me wrong though. I wasn't by myself for long. A couple of my new friends were going to meet there and guess what? We had a good time (well, I had one of the best times of my life, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that the others had a good time as well).

Here's who showed up:

Matt--the one who friended me on Facebook after the piano recital and through him, I met a gazillion other friends.
Ashley--A girl with a brazenly hilarious attitude. According to what she said to Matt, she expects everyone to love her the first (and a half) time they meet her. It didn't take me much to like her.
Ashley's two friends (whom I was never introduced to formally but then again, they and Ashley didn't stay long).
Rachel--a Clemson graduate student in environmental science. Fashionable and uncommonly courteous, she (sadly) didn't stay long after we ate at Super Taco.
McKay--Matt's friend I had met previously while at the piano recital. A guy who accidentally locked his keys in his car and had to have Matt pick him up.
Jim--McKay's friend who was relatively more quiet than the either Matt or McKay and who admits to having a "dirty mind."
And last but never least, Angela--a girl who reminded me of a bunch of celebrities all rolled in one. She looked a lot like someone famous, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Other than that, she resembled Dakota Fanning and Keira Knightley. Also dressed like she belonged in a Tim Burton movie. Very cool.

Later that night, I met up with some of the same people (McKay, Matt, and Angela) at Nick's and then met some of their other friends. Mostly, we sat around Nick's drinking beer (I, forever the oddball, drank sweet tea) and played Uno. Matt wanted to play Mousetrap but apparently, not enough people felt the same way he did. So shortly after we played Uno, he left to go practice piano again. McKay and I struck up a match of Scrabble instead and we had various people watching us throughout the game including:
Paul--a guy who I swear I had seen somewhere but don't remember where (maybe from Brian's apartment?)
Ashe--definitely a guy who used to hang out in Brian's apartment but when I asked him, he doesn't seem to remember Brian or his other friend, Russ.
And Anne from Moe Joe's (and my psychology class).

The last thing I wanted to say was that it was the first time in a long time that I felt...free. I did a lot of running today. Not exercise running. Just more of like an urge to run wherever I went and for some reason, it made me feel so free. Made me feel unrestrained, uninhibited. I even ran past Dalton on my way back to my dorm and I almost turned to say hi to him...but then decided against it. For once, I wasn't running away from my past; I was running towards my future. I had a future now, a future I wanted to live. That was it, wasn't it? For the first time in so long, I had a reason to live. Now I understand why people not just WANT companionship, but NEED it. It makes them feel alive. It makes them feel wanted and worthy and valuable. Now I understand. And now I can truly live.

I love my friends. I love my family. I love my life. I love me. All of a sudden, having around 60 more years to live on this earth...doesn't seem so bad.