Tuesday, April 29, 2008

HEAD-NOD!

Often, when I leave the confines of my room and journey across campus to a given destination, I run into an assortment of "friends." Depending on the kind of friendship we share, we either exchange awkward half-glances; smiles; head-nods; a weak "how's it going?/"good, you?"; half-hearted chatting; or genuine chatting.

Most of the time, though, it's head-nods (sometimes with a smile or a "how's it going?" tacked on). The kind of friends who call for head-nods fall into several categories:

1) The Class Friend: You are in seminar with this guy. You spend an hour and 50 minutes in a confined space with him every week. You have a good sense of his fashion sense, his intelligence (at least when it comes to Latin American Revolutions, or whatever specific/weird topic your seminar is about) and his general demeanor. Once you ran into him in Commons and made a joke about the weird expression the professor makes whenever he asks questions. But, when you pass him on the street, you realize that you actually know nothing about him. You don't know his crowd, you have no grasp of his sense of humor, and -- it occurs to you -- you don't actually know his name. HEAD-NOD!

2) The Friend of a Friend: She is one of your best friend's friends. You have been introduced to her like 17 times. Whenever you are with this best friend, FofF either comes over, comes up in conversation, or texts your best friend. FofF is unavoidable! Yet, despite the fact you are both good friends with this same person, it is just obvious you two are never going to become friends yourselves. It's cool, though. You're civil. You make banter when you're at some party talking to the mutual Best Friend and Best Friend goes to the bathroom. Despite the fact that you know basically everything about FofF's life, you don't stop when you pass FofF on the street because there's nothing to talk about unless your mutual Best Friend is around. HEAD-NOD!

3) The "One Night" Friend: It was a Friday night and you were hanging out with your usual crew and ONF happened to drop by (she spent a summer in London with one of your friends). You totally hit it off with ONF. She laughs at your jokes; you think her hair is pretty -- it's awesome. You spend this great night hanging out with ONF and your other friends. You go to all these parties and realize you like the same kind of music and both hate beer -- OMFG! You get food at the end of the night and have this crazy waiter which generates so many inside jokes. You part ways at the end of the night and immediately Facebook her when you get home (can't friend her until the next day, obviously). But then something weird happens. You go a few weeks without seeing ONF again. Then you bump into her on the street one day and you make small talk about the class you are late for and then talk about getting lunch. But that just feels weird because talking about uncomfortable lunch plans makes you feel like you are 37. And you realize the night you and ONF shared is a one-time thing and that you shouldn't try to fight it. So, from that point on, when you pass ONF on the street, it's a HEAD-NOD!

4) The High School Friend: You went to high school together, but you are not friends. You weren't friends in high school and you aren't friends now. Just because you were both in Mr. Dotoli's math class six years ago and now happen to go to the same college don't mean a thang. Whenever you pass him on the street, horrid memories of eating overcooked grilled cheese sandwiches in the back of the cafeteria, trying to be invisible at dance parties and shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch come RAGING BACK. When you see HSF, your past comes back... and no one wants that. HEAD-NOD!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was really hoping that this would be a post about how lame spring fling is.

Anonymous said...

great blog