If you’re adding to the noise, turn off this song
A solitary, silent drive home can be a wonderful thing. That I feel this way may surprise anyone that knows me at all. My sister used to say that I was afraid of silence, which is partially true. Whenever an awkward quiet hits a room, there’s a part of me that has to break it with some quip or superfluous anecdote. I’m not sure why. But back to what I was saying…A solitary, silent drive home can be a wonderful thing. I never thought this was something I would enjoy or even do, really. I’m usually inclined to have music blazing out of my car speakers when I’m on the road, tapping the steering wheel and singing off-key. But the past few Tuesday night drives, coming home from Carson-Newman after YOKE and FCA, have been spent in silence. And it’s an amazing thing. In this somber, quiet drive, one can recover from what he’s just gone through, or prepare for what’s to come, or simply reflect on…well, anything. Tonight, I thought about people. I think about people a lot. Well, not just people in general, but specific people. There’s Rachel…I may have mentioned her once or twice here. Rachel is one of my best friends. We shared a conversation after YOKE today about work and life and being overwhelmed. Rachel works at Ruby Tuesday, too, though not the one I work at. She’s feeling very overwhelmed with work and school and relationships and everything right now. I wanted to tell her that I know how she feels…but then I realized that I don’t. I have never had that feeling. That feeling of REALLY having too much on my plate. I think maybe it’s because I’m a slacker. Or maybe I’m just lucky. But I did tell her that I think she’s doing a great job of getting through it all…which sounded really cheesy after I said it. Then I felt stupid. Then came the all-too-common awkward moment where I don’t know what to say, and she doesn’t know how to reply to what I just said…and then I finally told her that I was sorry, that that made no sense at all. What I really meant was that if I had been overwhelmed, I don’t think I could’ve handled it the way she is handling it. Never having been in that situation, however, I can’t be sure. But I’m PRETTY sure that I wouldn’t handle it as well as she. I would probably freak out and go into the fetal position and beg for my mommy. But then again, I do that sometimes just for fun to scare the people at Target. Before you ask, no I’m not on any medication right now…I’m just typing and letting whatever comes out comes out. It’s kind of fun really. You should try it. It’s freeing.
But seriously, a solitary, silent drive home can be a wonderful thing.
I also think of Matt and Ashley, my couple of friends. And by couple of friends, I don’t mean two friends of mine…I mean they are a couple…and they are my friends. Now this makes for all sorts of wonderfully awkward third-wheel situations. But that’s okay…Mashley (as the tabloids would call them) is (is or are?) usually pretty cool about it. They went on a Valentine’s date tonight…I don’t know where they went…but I bet it was fun. Of course, then comes the wonderful “why the heck am I single?” extravaganza of thought. This lasts for the rest of the drive home. And consists mostly of me telling myself in the voice of Stewie from Family Guy that I need to “Quit eating, Fatty!” Okay, so that part’s not real…that was a joke.
As I was saying…a solitary, silent drive home can be a wonderful thing.