The Friendship Test

If I
had to estimate how many new people I’ve met since leaving Rome and undertaking
a summer as an Italian nomad, I’d cap it off at about 1,000.

Being
essentially homeless (the colors ask me, where
do you live? And I tell them well;
right now I live here, in this convent. They laugh, and say, no, where is home, and then it’s my turn to laugh and reiterate, everything I own in the world is in a twin
room upstairs. Literally, home is here)
means meeting different folks on the daily. Some of these people I forget, some
of them forget me, and some of them I remember forever and ever AMEN because
THEY ARE ALL THE AMAZING THINGS.

Strickland
and I met earlier this summer, when we were accidentally in a prayer circle together. We
danced in a piazza until 4 a.m. and laughed until I snorted gin from out of my
nose. It was one of those nights. The
nights with the People to Remember.

I’d like him in my tribe, I thought to myself. And then,
but I bet I’ll never see him again.

Imagine,
then, my surprise when I- for absolutely no reason at all- called my
Complicated Friend With All The Cool Music. Hey,
you! she said to me down the phone. Guess
who I am with RIGHT NOW THIS VERY SECOND. They’d bumped into each other on
a mountain in Liguria, and suddenly, plans were able to be made for a lunch.

Internet. After
that lunch, Strickland and I went to Switzerland.

(Because
that’s a totally normal thing to do with somebody you’ve spent a total of six
hours with.)

The
emails pretty much went: LET’S MEET UP AGAIN PLEASE (me) which led to I FINISH
TEACHING NEXT WEEK AND HAVE TWO WEEKS TO KILL BEFORE I GO HOME, SO SHOW ME HOW
TO BE A NOMAD (him), and that became COME TO LOANO AND HAVE DINNER! OR COME WITH
ME TO SWITZERLAND! (me) which was kind of a joke until SWITZERLAND
SOUNDS NICE. WHAT ARE THE DETAILS (him) and then, OKAY. I BOOKED MY FLIGHT.
I’LL SEE YOU AT THE AIRPORT (him).

And
that is how I got a new member in my tribe, and a new entrance test for all
future applicants: how many emails will
it take for you to come to Switzerland with me?

If
the answer is any more than five, then you don’t make the cut.  

That’s the new rule. 

Want to say something about this post? Talk to me! Twitter. Facebook. Email. Instagram. Bloglovin'.