Opposites
Samuel McGee ‘22
I was small (at the time), quiet, and a little dumb.
I saw him on the first day of school and consciously or unconsciously decided I wanted to be more like him. I wanted to answer questions the way he did, I wanted to make friends the way he did, I wanted to dress the way he did. Here’s an example: I remember during recess him describing a movie that his older brother watched with him, which was a big deal as this was an R-rated movie. So, of course I tried to watch the movie that night and of course my parents said I under no certain circumstances could watch that movie.
I “watched” it that night anyways. And by watched, I mean I watched the trailer on YouTube that night and then tried to keep up with a conversation about it the next day on the playground with the knowledge of someone who’d watched the trailer. I have no idea why this was the way it was; that’s just how it was.
He was tall, loud, social, and smart.
He didn’t see me on my first day of school, or rather he didn’t notice me. As he tells it to me, he’d been there for a year already and was more concerned with catching up with friends than making new ones. However, he tells me as time passed, he did come to notice me. Ironically, the first thing he noticed was my quietness.
“You were quiet as a mouse.”
He noticed how during classes I almost never would raise my hand and during recess I preferred to read rather than to talk to others or play around. According to him, it was this quietness that he began to admire. He tells me he wanted to embody that aspect, “probably because [he] was tired of getting told by teachers to quiet down.”
We look back on these times where we saw the beginning of our friendship take root; we are awash in waves of warm nostalgia for a time long since passed.
As we got to know each other more, we started to replicate each other’s behaviors. A year had passed, and I had hit my growth spurt; however, we weren’t standing equally to each other just in height. Socially, I was still on the quiet end; however, he’d introduced me to some of his friends, I started to warm up socially, and by the end of that first year my friends were his friends, and his friends were mine. Curiously, the way I dressed also changed because of him. Here’s an example: I remember begging my mom to pick up a pair of these bright firetruck-red Vans—still a piece of clothing I find in my closet always—that my friend absolutely raved about. That day he had chewed my ear off about the comfort, style, and (oddly enough) the smell of the shoes; he really loved and still loves the smell of fresh canvas. So of course, after such glowing reviews, I wanted a pair of my own in the same style and color as the ones he had.
He reminds me that he changed a lot after getting to know me as well. He tells me that he took a page from my book and learned how to talk less when he shouldn’t have been talking—or at least how to take on a hushed voice. He reminds me of how I got him into one of his favorite book series of his childhood, Percy Jackson. He reminds me of how after I had introduced him to the series, he went as far as dressing up as Percy Jackson for Halloween. He straightened his wavy hair and got a Camp Half-Blood shirt, the full nine yards. It was a good costume, in hindsight. According to him, prior to meeting me he never would’ve considered picking up a book for fun. And, again unexpectedly, he says that the way he dressed also changed. Apparently, my taste for blue colors rubbed off on him, as he started wearing blue jeans more often instead of sweats, which surprised me seeing as jeans are piece of clothing that is a mainstay in his closet to this day. I mean seriously, as far back as I can remember, he’s never been without a pair. His favorite brand is Levi’s—same as mine.
Looking back on how we’ve grown up and affected each other, I’ve realized how much of an impact he had on my personality and how I chose to express myself, and vice versa. The true impact we’ve had on each other is probably impossible to “measure” by any reasonable means. If we hadn’t met, I’ve got no idea what kind of a person I’d be; from how I choose to interact with others to something as simple as how I’d get dressed in the morning, I’ve got no clue. But it’s just that that makes me that much more grateful that I got to know him and that he got to know me. I love the personal style I choose to express myself with, and I wouldn’t change any of the events or people that led me to arrive at it.
