Two years.
As I write this, I have had to pause to comprehend this amount of time.
Two years.
In the long run, quite insignificant, when you think that there are people who have been walking this Earth for eighty or more. For me, though, it feels like the last two years have been an eternity and a passing breeze all at once.
Two years ago today, everything changed forever. A Nobel-Prize lost it's recipient; an unborn horse lost its rider; a graduation gown, adorned with the highest honors, would never be worn. "Is" became "was". "Formal" became "funeral". "Next year" became "never". A mutual future that I had talked so much about was gone forever. It would be a lie to say these things don't play on my mind still.
There is no doubt, today is a sad day, and it always will be, no matter how much time passes. Still, I try not to dwell on the sad things too much. That's not the Catherine I remember.
Instead, I remember sitting up until the small hours of the morning, discussing what it might be like if all the pavements in Belfast were replaced with travellators. I remember walking through the streets of Italy wearing thick jumpers even though it was probably well over twenty degrees. I remember grabbing a two man tent by its roof and shaking it at 5AM, just so I would have someone to walk to the bathroom with in the rain. I remember that naive innocence that comes with being fifteen years old, confident that adulthood and responsibility were a long way away. I'd give anything for just ten more minutes of that.
Above all, I remember one of the best friends I have ever had, even more than I usually do. Any time I see a horse in a field by the road-side, or read some scientific fact well beyond my own understanding, I let myself smile. Memories are the one thing that don't change, even if the circumstances surrounding them do.
Usually this is where I would write something like "appreciate the things you have while you have them", or "tell the people around you that you love them, every day,"... but I'm not going to, because I know it won't happen. It's just human nature to take things for granted.
Thank you, Catherine, for your friendship, and for the plethora of memories you have left me with. I miss your wisdom, your child-like sense of humor, and having my own human periscope. I'm not a spiritual person by any means, but I know, if there is a life beyond this, that we will be picking up right where we left off.
Cheesy outro done. Have a great day, everyone.















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