We finally got to the MAX station and had to stand and wait for the train for a while in the freezing cold. We made awkward chit-chat for a while, commenting on the amusing names of stores at Gresham Station ("Men's Wearhouse", "Dress Barn") until it was time to get on the MAX. We rode for a while and slooooowly eased into casual conversation, discussing the huge papers we'd be writing in Beaman's class and pondering why the only phrase not translated into Spanish on the MAX was "The doors are closing." We missed our stop, got lost a couple times, and were really early for the field trip. We had to wait around for a while until our teacher and the only other student who would join us that day showed up.
Despite the somber nature of our field trip (The US internment of Japanese Americans during WWII), after the awkwardness dissipated, we had so much fun. I'll never forget that day: February 19, 2005. The day we field-trippers wanted to feel cool and Japanese by adopting the last name of our only Japanese group member for the day, making it the first time I would write my name as Lynsey Nishikawa. These days I realize that it will be many years before I write that for the last time.
Life has definitely been an adventure since then, and like every good adventure story there have been periods of fun, exhaustion, anger, elation, fear, excitement, sadness, and of course romance. Sometimes it feels like everything is working against us and things will never go right, but then I realizing that if something isn't worth fighting for, it isn't worth having, and Jared Nishikawa is definitely worth having.
This is what I wrote here (on this very blog!) two years ago. It's listed as February 18th, but only because I started writing the entry the day before and finished it on the 19th.
And now, the most recently (as in this very morning), I went on a very fun/sad field trip. All of the students in Mr. Beaman's history classes (including AP U.S. History and the regular history classes) were invited to a field trip at the Portland Expo Center commemorating the internment of West Coast Japanese-American's by the U.S. Government. Since we were all to meet at the Expo Center MAX stop at 10:00 A.M., I went online to figured out how long it would take to ride the MAX from Gresham Station to our destination. Sadly, it turned out we had to leave early....like...by 8:30 in the morning. Since I was giving the intrepid Jared Nishikawa a ride to the MAX in exchange for super karate-awesome protection against MAX psychos, this meant I had to leave the house before 8:00 in the morning on a Saturday. But aside from this unfortunate reality, good times were had by all. We only got lost twice-ish, and had fun making fun of the name of the store "Dress Barn", pondering the real meaning of the word "mart", and trying to figure out why every announcement over the MAX intercom was repeated in Spanish except "the doors are closing" (I decided it's because the Tri-Met secretly hates Spanish-speaking MAX patrons and wants them to be crushed by the MAX doors when they least expect it.) So, though the only people who actually showed up to the trip were myself, Jared, Courtney Hucke, and Mr. Beaman (Sad isn't it? ), good times were had by all.
- http://nobodyhome.blogspot.com, Feb 19, 2005
Do you remember when we first met? I sure do
It was some time in early September
You were lazy about it, you made me wait around
I was so crazy about you, I didn't mind
- Jack Johnson, "Do You Remember"
2 comments:
I'll never forget that day! :D
Wow, how cool/sweet/romantic. Interesting how things work out, eh? So, any idea where you'll be going next year yet?
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