A Thousand Words Volume 2: Good Friends Are Good For You

Hello, and welcome to the second post in the A Thousand Word Series. Now if you don’t know what this series is about, don’t remember, or didn’t read the first ATW post, you can find it under the blog section of this website.

As for today’s ATW, we will be throwing it back to the January of 2016. Here, we are seeing six college bros and a crafted snowman in what appears to be a lightly powdered ground. The person I spoke to about this photo is a smart and successful young lad, who seemingly struggles with the duality that is maintaining overwhelming personal success and maintaining mental health. My interviewee is Aaron Powell or Mr. Powell as seen in my contacts and as I spoke to him I began to learn that good friends are good for you.

Paddington, the Snowman, and his snow friends.

I began by asking Aaron, the guy rocking the red coat, to describe what is happening in the photo.

Aaron: So the photo is a group of RAs that we had grown close with over the course of what was my sophomore year of college huddled around a cardboard snowman that we had made for an RA Christmas party, kind of as a joke.

As someone who planned that Christmas party, I had no clue Paddington, the snowman was a joke. So with that in mind, I wanted to get his initial reaction and a feel for what his feels during this day.

Aaron: It actually makes me really happy to see this photo, I don't necessarily miss this time in my life, but in this photo a fair amount of people that I'm still really close with. I remember that this snow fell on what should have been GRASS, which ended up getting canceled because of it, I think this was even the day with chicken biscuits, although I could be wildly off. And I remember feeling really happy with just life during that point. I didn't have nearly the level of stress and self-doubt that I have now. I just remember being happy during that time, and I think this picture does a great job of summarizing that.

So, here is the fun thing about being a person that writes her autobiography through photos and videos, you also tend to manuscript others lives. Pieces of their life they might have forgotten. I wanted to see what he remembered before I creeped him out with a few surprises.

Me: Sooo... what else happened that day?

Aaron: Well I really hope I'm remembering this correctly, but I believe that Makayla had never made a snowman up until that day. So we had the idea to try and build a snowman, but there was so little snow. So what we did, was build a really small one and then take a perspective shot to make it look bigger. And past that, I don't really know what we did. I just remember the snow was bad enough to cancel GRASS but wasn't actually that bad at all.

Me: So. Chicken biscuits yes. And mini golf…

Aaron: Oh that's right we did play mini golf later that night. Man, I completely forgot how packed of a day that was. That's up there with the Moondogs day.

Moondogs. Ohhhhhh Moondogs. I hope to get permission to tell that story in the future. Anywho, by this point,  I was searching through my archive looking for a set of specific videos that I sent to him. You can see them below.

His reactions to these videos were not as expected.

Aaron: No!!! Tim, gosh I miss Tim so much. That guy was genuinely one of the best and most genuine people I've ever met. The guy did not have a rude bone in his body, and I'm pretty sure I never saw him cuss. And yeah don't worry, the link worked although now I've got some immense feels going on over here. Dang, I completely forgot about trying to play snow soccer again the night before with Tim also. Geez, I miss Tim. I'm gonna hit him up tomorrow and see how he's doing.

Out of 48 hours of videos, a friend is what stood out most, and his feeling towards that friend, so with that, I dug a bit deeper.

Me: Soooo... whatcha feeling?

Aaron: Man I don't know. I'm just really happy to be able to remember this stuff. I don't miss it necessarily as I said, but I do miss the people in it. Every one of the people in that picture, minus my roommate, is someone who I at one point cared about, and now I don't get to see them ever. This picture and I guess "talking" about it has me thinking more about those people in the picture than the picture itself or even the day it happened

Me: So, you mentioned being happy with life at this point. Why?

Aaron: Well at this point I still had the same sense of a lingering self-doubt, and a general questioning of why I was doing what I was doing, but it hadn't set in yet. I was still just a sophomore and classes were still easy. I was just beginning to meet all of these new RAs, and I got to thrive at something. I don't know what's different now even though I'm living with the best roommates ever, and am doing great in life. It just feels like all of my movements are through mud, and that I'm not really making progress towards anything. Back then, I can't really point to a specific reason why, but I just don't remember feeling this kind of hanging cloud that I deal with now.

So that year was kinda a super special year. You know in the Whoniverse, there's the space-time continuum that the doctor travels and he can pretty much change anything except fixed points (like the doctor’s death during his eleventh incarnation) that has major impacts. I think he and I, and our whole family, the RA squad, meeting was one of those fixed points. It was just one of those magical tv moments when the screen gets all bright and hue-y and everything is in technicolor. It kinda makes everything else look a bit dull. I asked if he felt this was true, and if moments like this make everything else feel dull.

Aaron: No I think you're exactly right. Sure my freshman year was incredible, but the people I still keep up with today were met during that year.

With life seemingly dragging him through the mud. He has had a few constants in his life and those are his friends. With that in mind, I asked him about his closest friends.

Aaron: Well my closest friends have to be Brendan, Hunter, Alain, Spencer, and Aaron Leix.

Me: So what kinda life lessons have you learned through the years from your friends?

Aaron: So so many. I couldn't really point to specifics, but each one represents a tangible part of my personality. So each one teaches me about that part of me as I've grown close to them.

• Well like in Brendan and Alain I see a side of me that normally doesn't get shown that often. That's the side of me that's allowing myself to have these friends and to care for them.
• In Hunter, I see the side of me that likes working with my hands and growing and continuing to learn new things.
• In Spencer and Aaron Leix, I see the logical side. This is the side that I'm most in touch with which is why emotions are not a big thing for me.

But without all of these friends, I would slip more into that logical side that's more borderline sociopathic than anything else.

I think it is safe to say that Aaron cares for his friends, but I asked anyway.

Me: What do your friends mean to you?

Aaron: Well, they are arguably the one thing that keeps me sane through it all. I've yelled at every one of them more than once, but that is why they're my friends. They stick with me through my shit and I stick with them through theirs. There have been numerous times where my mental health takes a bit of a downturn, and it is these friends whether they know it or not that keeps me on track.

With that, I wanted to conclude our interview trying to connect the Aaron of now with the Aaron of the past.

Me: In hindsight do you think this night had an impact on how you lived out the rest of your college years and now into your adulthood?

Aaron: Yes and no. This particular moment and day probably had pretty little impact on my college path, but what it captures and symbolizes had and has a huge effect on my life and college path.

Me: What do you remember feeling about the people in the photo and how has that changed?

Aaron: For a majority of the people in the photo, how I feel about them hasn't changed. It has just grown and molded with how all of us have grown and continued to shape each other through college.

With Paddington, the Snowman, in mind, I wanted to know how Aaron views the evolution of his friendships into the future.

In case you were curious Aaron did hit up Tim, and I have a sneaking suspicion he reached out to other friends as well. Because through the ups and downs, the stress and anxiety, the near or full-blown breakdowns, there are always those that bring us back and balance us out. He probably reached out because good friends are good for you.

P.S. Stayed tuned next week for the first ever ATW Short featuring Mike and Erin.