However, the movie also reminded me of the soft, worn newspaper I found at the bottom of Taylor's purse covered in pieces of windshield glass. She and Duchess, a.k.a. Josie, her "little" in the Theta house, had created on it what I assumed was a bucket list. Appropriately, the newsprint is a page from a Tulsa entertainment paper and the page captures the remarks 10 Tulsa musicians make about the best albums of 2013. Together, they love music.
As I walked, I thought, "How cool is it that these two wild-at-heart, never-say-quit, over-achieving, wannabe-rebels could dream together and plan for their tomorrows. Duchess challenged Taylor, almost gave her permission to step out ever so slightly and explore new experiences.
Their lists include random items like:
- give weird compliments
- have your cake and eat it too
- shut down social media
- eat of jar of peanut butter in one sitting,
- and convincing someone they were sisters.
The bucket list, as I see them creating it, made them laugh and think and dream and challenge boundaries. Isn't that what we treasure most about the friends with which we grew, the ones that watched us begin to become the person we would be and loved us all the way through it? I am still friends with those souls who let me grow and fail and try again. I believe Taylor will walk across Josie's heart in the years to come as some of these events listed on the bucket list occur in Josie's life. Josie writes about it in her blog, a blog she and Taylor shared this last summer. Joey and I couldn't wait until they each posted and we marveled at how they were similar and yet different - complimenting each other's strengths. http://temporarycellmates.wordpress.com/2014/08/
More adventures line the margins of the tattered newsprint, but they are not mine to share. Having it makes me feel like I invaded that sacred girl space a twenty year old has with her friends apart from her mom. Some the items do get "under my skin" just as Taylor's entry to their blog states below, but that's what those "best years of our lives" are for. She writes:
As we come into the mid-way point of our Big/Little separation, I anxiously await Josie’s return, as well as Alex’s (a friend who’s studying in Spain), but I also find myself becoming more anxious to embark on my own journeys abroad. I have dreamed of traveling to Europe ever since discovering I could purposefully do things to get under my mother’s skin, leaving the country being close to the top of the list (Lolz just kidding mom).
But, seeing as my trip is still a very long 6 months away, I will just have to be patient and find more local and less expensive ways to annoy my mother while enjoying my time and the beginning of the decline of my college career here in Norman. (weird right?) The summer and the fall are my favorite times of the year because of three things: sunshine, road trips & Football.
72 days until Football Time in Oklahoma friends. Boomer Sooner.
I am so thankful Taylor Renee and Duchess found each other at the Theta house in Norman. I love that they were so immediately connected that friendship followed easily, gracefully, hilariously across the streets of Norman, Arlington, and Tulsa and on the pages of newsprint and computer screens. Taylor was immediately at home with Duchess and I think, Josie's family, - inviting herself to be a part of the Smith family with the same confidence and attitude with which she walked into any room - "Why wouldn't they love me?" - head cocked, eyes flashing, chin resting gently on a hand that rested beneath it.
Want a corner of my heart? Love my babies and you will belong to me forever. If Taylor was sent to light the world, Duchess was sent to change it. They are a pair, that Duchess and my princess.
#golighttheworld
"I always thank my God as I remember in you in prayers." Philemon 1:4