~Birthday Wishes~

When we were in our youth
We had dreams that we could fly
We had friends that weren't visible
And love that never died

And as we grow old and felt the pain
That we always knew the truth
That love would heal if we stayed true
To the dreams of our youth




Today would have marked the 30^th birthday for our friend. Every day it is always with great sorrow that we are reminded that he is no longer with us, but he would know that his friends and family continue to honour his memory by trying to live our lives to the fullest: supporting one another, loving each other, and chasing those aspirations – that even though we think are unattainable and “out there” – he supported fully.

To mark this special day here are thirty of my most treasured memories of him.

1.    The critique of my bright pink lego-hoodie that supposedly “did nothing for my figure”. I don’t care what you say, that hoodie is freaking comfortable and a perfect addition to my slob-wardrobe.

2.    Screwing up that annotated bibliography, which forced us to have to put in a couple extra days to re-do and fix it. (I can hear your sinister laugh over it still)

3.    Aquarius vs. Gemini

	Aquarius	Gemini
Symbol:	The Water Bearer	The Twins
Element:	Air	Air
Favourite Colour:	Turquoise	Green
Key Body Parts:	Ankles, Circulatory System	Arms, shoulders, lungs
Ruling Planet:	Uranus	Mercury
Strengths:	Progressive, original humanitarian, independent	Curiousity, ability to share ideas, adaptable, affectionate, kind
Weaknesses:	Runs from emotional expression, uncompromising, temperamental, aloof	Scattering energy in too many places at once, fickle in love, nervous, short attention span

I think the evidence I provided speaks for itself since circulatory system trumps everything but we probably should have done this research together.

4.    The non-Asian style karaoke night in a very busy pub with a lot of strangers and you singing way too many Taylor Swift songs.

5.    The perfect rainy days: writing, Adele, tea (with cream and sugar though – yuck!)

6.    How weird it was that whenever you called I was always in the middle of eating something and then you constantly demanding I send some of it over to you. (I swear those courier pigeons must have eaten it all)

7.    The day I learned that you were a hockey-freak. It was incredibly frightening. I still have nightmares about it.

8.    The day you learned I like rap and hip-hop. Especially Kanye West. I think you were incredibly frightened and probably had nightmares over it.

9.    Bets during the Olympics; our best one being for the men’s hockey gold medal game. I’m just really happy I won because I would not have been too pleased keeping my end of that bargain.

10. The endless ridicule I heard from you over my French-speaking abilities. You = douche.

11.  Receiving parcels in the mail.

12.  Going out for Korean food the first time together where you ate enough for three people and walked out with red-chilli peppers in your teeth. Oh, glorious day.

13.  Two words: THUNDER THIGHS! (And you thought you were too old to learn anything new)

14.  Pirate wenches and Fabio. That’s all I’m going to say.

15.  The day I came into class with my disastrously, short haircut only to have you point out that our hair pretty much looked the exact same (chin-length and wavy). It only got worse when I came in the next day wearing a grey beanie-cap to cover my head and you wore a similar beanie the exact same colour on the same day. Dear God I never heard the end of it.

16.  Our tagline: “... and all that other optimistic shit you love.”

17. All that time I put in over the phone, explaining how to set up skype step-by-step only to realize once we were done that your laptop did not have a built in webcam.

18. J: I don’t know about med school but I do know I want to contribute to society. I don’t know like stopping forest fires, taming wild horses, rescuing seals, or maybe learning sign.”
C: Stop talking.
J: Wha-?
C: That how you can contribute to society. Stop talking.

19.  Drunk-dialing looking for the red underwear.

20. Clubbing in downtown Seattle. Actually just that whole night was one weird event after another.

21.  Peanut butter and relish burritos. Fucking nasty.

22. Sitting through a Sex and the City episode and thinking once these 44-whatever-minutes are up I’m going to kill you.  

23.  All those hours (and huge phone bills) spent talking long distance on the phone. It was hard though because we were constantly out of synch though. Exactly one year ago we were talking for so long that I made you late for your own birthday dinner. My bad.

24. Walking around Stanley Park, trying to think of something to do. We did come up with some creative ideas; one which involved jumping off logs and me face-planting into the sand.

25. *queue in fight music* vs. *insert kiss here*

26. All those times I sang “Teenage Dream” to you and you said you were going to go crazy when secretly you actually kind of liked it.

27. When you told me something you were happy about and then followed it by saying “fist pump” for the first time.

28. Stealing your Members Only jacket out of your suitcase. Its absence was supposedly the first thing you noticed when you started unpacking and you called me right away knowing I was the culprit. Probably helped that I confessed right away but there wasn’t much you could do about it over on the other side of the world. You even bought a smaller jacket that would fit me better hoping I would mail back yours but in the end I just wound up with two jackets.

29. Swapping ipods and messing with and creating playlists. Yes, yes you get credit for 30% of the artists I like now.

30. à toi, pour toujours

Happy birthday Jesse. We all miss you terribly and wish for nothing but the opportunity to create new, lasting memories with you, but we know you’re watching over us.

-Caro-