For me, birthdays have become less about counting the candles on the cake and more about counting the blessings in my life. Thankfully, I’m lucky to have quite a few.
Today, though, I'd like to celebrate one blessing in particular: my best friend and brother from another mother, Drewski, who’s blessed my life with his friendship for the past thirty-one years.
Way back in 1995, back when the internet made noises that sounded like a fax machine arguing with a robot and meeting someone online was considered a bit scandalous, I wandered into an AOL M4M chat room.
That’s where I met Drewski.
We started chatting simply because we shared the same birthday. Though I’m older by just a year, Drewski looks younger now than when we first met. You’re ruining the bell curve. Good thing I love you, boo! 👻
We also happened to be in remarkably similar places in life. We were both coming out, navigating the dating world for the first time, and thrilled to have a co-conspirator along for the ride. I was living in Dallas. He was in Los Angeles.
What started as almost-daily chats soon turned into weekly phone calls. For those too young to remember, this was back when long-distance calls cost extra. So every conversation was basically an investment in our friendship.
Considering we still talk (and/or text) almost every day more than three decades later, I'd say those long-distance charges were money well spent.
Eventually, while flying home from a business trip, I intentionally booked a weeklong layover in the City of Angels so we could finally meet in person.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Thirty-one years later, he’s still one of my favorite humans.
More than a friend, Drewski is my chosen brother. He was the first person I consciously added to my chosen family. Through career changes, relocations, heartbreaks, breakdowns, breakthroughs, celebrations, existential crises, medical emergencies, shopping sprees, road trips, and more birthday cakes and candles than either of us cares to admit, he's been there. A true friend indeed…
Today we’re not able to celebrate together, but distance has never been much of an impediment for our friendship. We’ve been texting since early this morning, and over the weekend we had an early birthday breakfast at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
I left that meal with a belly full, an even fuller heart, and yet another reminder that family isn’t always the one we’re born into. Sometimes it includes someone you met in an AOL chat room in 1995.
So today, I'm celebrating more than just another trip around the sun. I'm celebrating thirty-one years of friendship, fifty-three years of Drewski's life, fifty-four years of my own, and all the adventures and misadventures that somehow keep finding us.
I have a feeling the best chapters of our lives are still being written.
Thank you for being a friend, Nerrrrrd!
Clint 🌈✌️
P.S. I mean every single word of this song. From the bottom of my heart. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
COLLIDE PRESS is a reader-supported publication.
Please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber or Patron.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
NSFW MONTAGES = On Substack
SFW MONTAGES = On YouTube
BORN THIS WAY ON THIS DAY
07-23 = Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876) = American actor 🌈
07-23 = F. Holland Day (1864-1933) = American photographer 🌈
07-23 = Gavin Lambert (1924-2005) = British-American writer 🌈
07-23 = Ruth Ellis (1899-2000) = American activist and centenarian 🌈
07-23 = Samuel Steward (1909-1993) = American tattooist and pornographer 🌈
MAN CRUSH OF THE DAY
“My main hope for myself is to be where I am.”
Woody Harrelson
Wishing you the happiest of birthdays! Hope the coming year is the best one yet.
Eat cake 🍰
Celebrate 🎉
Enjoy friends 😊
Know you are loved and cherished ❤️❤️👏👏🥳🥳
Awww…back atcha, Nerd. 😘
And I echo the sentiments. So many times I would not have made it had it not been for you—that ever present voice in my head or on my shoulder, not just supporting and encouraging me, but calling me on my own bullshit and daring me to be more, to think differently, and to measure myself not by others’ standards but by those I make for myself.
I learned friendship from you at a pivotal and crucial time when I needed it most.