by Christopher Wang ’20

My sore eyes opened to the crack of daylight piercing through the bedroom window blinds.

I took a look at the alarm clock’s blazing red numbers. 11:33.

Then it hit me. I’d been too lazy to adjust my alarm to daylight savings a few weeks back.

 

I got up, brushed my teeth and made my way to the closet.

The classic blue shirt, grey shorts combo wouldn’t cut it anymore with school out. My indecisiveness had me peering through every inch of my closet looking for a T-shirt that I liked the texture of, because I was in the good-texture-shirt mood that day.

 

Then I found it. The tie I wore to Winter Formal. I put it on not because it quenched my thirst for a soft cotton T-shirt, but rather for the memories it brought. As soon as I put it on, the ground-shaking flashback hit me.

 

During my sophomore year at the Winter Formal Dance, my best friend, Christian, split his pants trying do the splits. How could I not remember the clean tear of woven wool piercing through the melody of Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA”? It was loud, and it was brutal, but a tinge of laughter squeaked out as well.

 

The night was still young at the time of the incident, so rather than letting a wardrobe malfunction ruin Christian’s night, I decided to help him out. I spent the rest of the evening standing right behind him—yes, right behind him—to prevent any curious onlookers from seeing his fire truck boxers through the seat of his pants.

 

So to all and any of my senior brothers, I hope I never find you in a situation as unfortunate as Christian’s, but maybe it happens. Maybe you do split your pants trying to impress a certain someone—maybe it devolves into something even worse than that. Whatever the case may be, I want you to know that I’ll have your back, literally.

 

So no matter what comes your way—our way—I’ll be there whenever you need a friend to help you with Spanish subtitles translations, a buddy to make you a PB&J when you’re sick (or hungry or lazy) or just a pal to read you a bedtime story. Who knows, maybe I’ll even end up lending you a pair of pants.