This Is Chris

As some of you may know, my best friend, Chris, recently started a blog on WordPress after years of me telling him he should. Clearly, I’m not very persuasive. This post will be about me telling you about him and trying to persuade you to follow his blog. It should go well.

FOLLOW HIS BLOG BY CLICKING HERE.

Before I get into the whole song and slow dance, it needs to be said that Chris always calls me by my full name. He never calls me just “Paul”. It’s always my first and last name.

But because I don’t use my last name on WordPress, he has to call me just “Paul” here. The first comment he sent me, where he only used my first name, felt so weird for the both of us.

Also, we disagree on what colour my hair is.

Moving on!

Chris and I grew up with a forest between us. That’s not a metaphor or a euphemism, it’s geography. We went to the same elementary school, but were never in the same class until Grade 6. The system tried to keep us apart. Some would say they built a forest between us.

In Grade 6, I’d go over to his house almost once a week after school to play video games and eat pizza. His mom was always so nice to me. Hi Julia! (She reads my blog). His dog, well, he sneezed on me. He’s still my favourite dog, though.

Despite not being in the same class until Grade 6, we had the same friends and played with interacted with each other at recess. I crossed out “played with” in that last sentence because Chris is probably snickering like an 8-year-old at it. As am I.

I remember one recess, distinctly, while we were in Grade 5. We were sitting on the steps of one of the portables (an outdoor classroom) and all of a sudden found ourselves talking about hockey. The bell rang and Chris said to me, “Wow, we have so much in common but never really talked before.”

And that is the moment I consider the start of us being best friends. We were in Grade 5.

However, a few years ago I realized that Chris thinks we became best friends in Grade 4. Sure, we were probably friends back then, but I didn’t think we were that close. Did I send mixed signals, I don’t know!

So, he thinks we became friends in 2000, I say 2001. We’ll never agree.

When we entered high school, Grade 9 was a lost year. Our schedules didn’t line up and we never really saw each other. Plus, texting wasn’t really a thing and neither was social media.

In Grade 10, we found our groove again and MSN became the main method of communication. MSN remained in our lives until it stopped being a thing when we were both in university.

That was a hard day for our friendship because we had no clue how else we would talk to each other. We finally made our way over to Facebook messages, but it wasn’t quite the same.

And for all of you yelling, “JUST TEXT EACH OTHER!” I hear you. But texts between us back then were extremely awkward and just weird. There was no flow or anything. It’s almost as if neither of us wanted to text the other.

Within the last year, we finally found our texting groove with each other, though it comes in spurts. We’ll text back and forth for a solid 15 minutes and then a reply will go unanswered for the next five hours, or two days. It’s just the way we are.

We don’t see each other that often anymore but when we do, it’s normally at a Pizza Hut lunch buffet or on a baseball diamond where we try to hit as many baseballs over the fence as possible. It’s fun. It’s also a reminder that we’re old.

Chris is the only person from elementary school who I still stay in contact with. He’s one of the few from high school who I still talk to, as well. We went to different universities, which in a way, brought us closer together.

There were an endless amount of late night chats on MSN while both of us should have been doing an assignment. We talked about everything. Absolutely everything. I think we all need a friend like that.

We’re very much alike, but also different. Hockey brought us together and our ability to laugh at the silliest things has kept us together.

We have never had the same taste in music until recently. He had been telling me about The Gaslight Anthem for years, but it wasn’t until I discovered them on my own that I became attached to them and their lead singer, Brian Fallon.

Chris thought I was kidding when I told him I liked their music. Other than that, we bond over the song, Runaround Sue. Then again, who doesn’t?

I remember a field trip in Grade 6. They took us to a comedy club. At one point, they told us to pick a partner and create a story with them. I would say one word, Chris would say the next, and so on until a story was made.

Our story was about constipated cats and we couldn’t stop laughing about it. I still can’t stop laughing about it. Constipated cats!

Chris has met some of my closest university friends and despite advertising himself as an awkward individual, I’d say he did pretty well! Except for the time we went skating and his toe went numb for a few hours. We laugh about it now. Or at least I do.

I’m on the left. Chris is on the right. McDonald’s is in our stomachs. This was the last day of Grade 6. This was half a lifetime ago. This is a long caption.

Here is a description of Chris in his own words:

My name is Christopher Mc Geown. My last name has a space because my dad filled out my birth certificate wrong. I was born and raised in Richmond Hill, my parents are divorced. I was a shy kid growing up. When I was in grade one we had small journals, my teacher would tell me to stop writing in them and play with the other children. I filled out about 2 dozen. I have always loved writing. It was in elementary school I met my best friend Paul, grade 4 to be exact.

When I grew up, I went to University thinking I wanted to be a writer. I applied for English programs, but when I started I quickly realized I would be buried by books. I didn’t like the idea of rushing through books, of reading becoming a chore—so after a year I switched into psychology because I liked helping people.

So I lost literature for a while.

I studied psychology, graduated to a job market barren for Psychology majors, panicked and took a one year post-grad course to become a Financial Planner. I ended up dropping this with a month left to go because I realized on life focused on money was not the life for me.

Recently, I started working various jobs, settling on maintenance. I started volunteering at a Distress Line. I began writing again and have completed 75% of a novel, hoping to have it done by early 2017. I applied and got accepted to do a Masters in January 2017. I continue reading and loving writing and poetry. I love humour and try to find it in everything even though sometimes my poetry may be a bit darker.

I am currently obsessed with Game of Thrones (on season 6, no spoilers). I am neither a cat or dog person (I am a both person), and I love talking to random people on the internet, talk to me, add me, whatever you like. Many talented writers here on WordPress!

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So, that’s Chris! Go follow his blog! Tell him I sent you! If you like me, you’ll like him. He likes tacos, chocolate milk, and sushi, so for all of you who give me a hard time about that, he’s you’re new favourite blogger. I won’t miss any of you.