As Ryamakauh comes to a close

i just wanted to take a moment and pay a little homage to my best friend since the seventh grade. Many people may know (or not realize) that we have been friends for such a long time.

We have been friends for over half of our lives. Knowing that I will be twenty six in a week from today doesn't seem that old, and I don't feel old, but know you have a friend who has been there for all of the crap, sicknesses, brokenness, graduations, and overall good times has been amazing. We don't share a birthday but we share a holiday; Ryamakauh. I spell it differently each time because a) I don't always remember how I did it the last time b) it really expresses the fluidity of such a holiday holds. It has no rules, just many gifts sent through the help of the people at the United States Postal Service.



The reason the holiday is celebrated is not that we have the same date of birth but that Ryan's birthday is May 18 and mine is June 18. The month in between growing up was spent celebrating these days with separate parties, drinks, and dinners. A couple of years ago we realized we were going to be living in separate states so we should finally name this silly holiday of ours. I believe it was settled that night we saw Wilco at Meadowbrook in late June where they sang Happy Birthday to someone in the band but in my mind it was sung to me and Ryan for our birthday celebration. Many of these birthdays have had some sort of Wilco theme a) because I am obsessed and b) albums seem to come out or they play shows about the times when our births are celebrated.




I have one of the most amazing friends in my life. I have a couple of girls (Erica and Wendy) who like Ryan are family. They are like my brother and sisters. I owe Ryan a lot. He has seen my illnesses, seen me through my ultra conservative phase and helped me to get through that with love and calling me out when it was needed. He has pushed me to continue to be the feminist I knew I could be with buying me books at graduation to supporting the possible Ph.D. in the horizon. It's pretty amazing to know that if I died at 75 he would have been there for over 60 of those years. That is a mark of a great friend and I feel very lucky that we have endured despite never being in the same city for the last eight years. Our friendship is traverses over the great United States....and to that I am grateful.



So Ryan...thanks for being a great friend and believing in me. Birthdays are great...I get to share mine twice. Once with my twin sister and a whole month with the kid in our seventh grade pictures could have passed as my brother. I think we even brought the ids home and asked our respective parents if he was estranged from our family and put a five where the six should have been!

Well this is my homage to Ryamakauh and to a great friend.

Happy Ryamakah!!