so i went to mom & pop's to get some ground meat and italian bread for dinner...

yes, it is called mom & pop's, and yes, it is the exact tiny, tucked-away, exorbitantly-priced general store that sells wine next to the candy next to the cat food and steak that immediately came to mind when i said it.

...but when i walked up to pay i was taken aback by a new face behind the register, even more so when i recognized it.

this was The Pregnant Chick of my freshman year theatre i class.
her name was amy.

i had struck up a quiet alliance (not quite a friendship as neither of us talked much) with her at the very beginning of the year, namely because she was quiet and i was quiet and new and everyone else in the class intimidated me, including the other, much younger, 'pregnant chick.'
regardless, tameika was wary at first of befriending me thus, as i hung out with The Pregnant Chick and what kind of person did that make me?

i smiled at her today in full knowledge that she in all realities would never recognize me as the long-haired blonde freshman who didn't drive and certainly never went to the store by herself, but i was struck by the fact that she had not changed at all.

by the time i met her, she was in her senior year and pregnant. her choices were made.

now, almost four years later she is exactly the same, right down to the grey oversized t-shirt dwarfing her small frame. the only thing missing is the gradually more noticeable abdominal bulge, the reason she missed a good portion of the most fun quarter of her senior year.
he is probably already potty-trained by now, this little bulge.

she greeted me warmly and openly, considerably more comfortable with herself than when i knew her so long ago, before either of us had been forced to grow up. ::considers:: ..being a grown up is not being a parent, but it is making serious sacrifices for other people, and by all rights i am still a child.

but she seemed happy enough and i don't feel sorry for her because what's the point in that? things happen, life alters it's course and continues on..

just something about the way she seemed frozen in time... i'm not quite sure why yet, but it struck me. and i needed to note that.

ink :: graphite