Officially gone.

Graduation weekend is over and Randy (my roomie) is officially gone. Some people think thank relationships (like in my case... two guys... close friends) that have 2 people of the same sex are weird... well, platonic friends who are closer than just friends - more like brothers.

I could see the tears in his eyes when we embraced before he left with his parents this afternoon. I held back my tears too. I've got a picture of us here on my wall and thinking of it does start to make my eyes well up with tears.

Life has to go on... in time, I'll be graduating and it'll be the same feeling all over again.

A little back-tracking... last night, i borrowed a bike and went to Muak Lek town to buy a bottle of 'fake wine' - sparkling grape juice for the 4 of us - Randy, Darran, Tyler and myself. I bought the most expensive one they had... about 250 baht, not too expensive for me but it's reasonably expensive here in thailand.

This morning, we walked down to the caf at 8:45am before the ceremony started and Tyler got a few cups with ice. Randy popped the cork... ur, twisted the cap rather... *i thought it was a cork... but it turned out to be a screw on cap!* and we poured out the 'wine' to celebrate their graduation and our friendship, the times we've had together in rooms 301 and 303. The closest bunch of friends ever!

"Cheers, to all the good times, bad times we've gone through and the weird times too" Randy said. We all laughed and before we drank, I gave a really short appreciation speech which Darran recorded on his camera (he has it everywhere! Trusty Panasonic LMC-2). We toasted and drank. I sensed that we all were kind of sad... the times have passed and they won't exactly go on in rooms 301 and 303... but im sure we will live experiences together somehow, somewhere, sometime in the future.

I'm sitting here with a tear starting to roll off my left cheek. Holding back just won't do I guess... Cheers to the great times ahead and congratulations, my best friend, Randy.

Always your bro,
Nathaniel