Josh Garrels

I think everyone has the same stories and memories of being in high school and sitting around a campfire all weekend - every weekend with their ever so talented friends while they play Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here on the acoustic guitar and smoking pot.  I know that my stories are nothing more special than that of the next ex high schooler.  But my story doesn't end with, "....and then we graduated and that was that."

I had a hefty handful of talented boys (because no one ever really has those talented girls that can play an acoustic guitar so lovely - at that age anyway) that would play together around our campfires.  Some of them are still playing in town and I do still get to see them from time to time when they have shows or if I ever go to our local Open Mic nights.  And they are really talented and fun to listen to - even still.  But it makes me wonder why they're playing at local Open Mic nights and dive bars in their hometown, even at the age of 30+, when clearly they are talented enough to have done something much bigger.

This is my friend, Josh.  He was one of the many boys to care only about his acoustic in high school and someone I was fortunate enough to be able to watch play every weekend - all weekend when I was in high school.

Josh was best friends with my very first love, Joe Carbone.  We all were really great friends.  Super close, as close as any 15 year olds could be (provided none of us had a license to drive back then).  I never knew Josh to date anyone - he was really fixated on skateboarding and music.  It's pretty much all that he did.  He always went to school dances with Rachel because they were dear friends and neither of them had to worry about that high school fear of obligation of hook up after the dance festivities came to a close.  Josh and I were in choir together for the entire four years of our schooling, and on some flash backs, I can still hear him through the rest of the entire choir.  He has a very unique voice, then and (obviously) now.  We had a solid group of us.  It was four girls that grew up together and four boys that grew up together, our group of eight met in high school and just clicked.  We all hung out together every chance we could.  It was my first look into what creating my own family was.  It was magical.

Slowly, everyone started to break up.  One by one tension grew in our small world of newly founded family.  Eventually, Joe broke up with me.  This break up was the last one, the one that really broke everyone a part from each other.  Sure, some of us would talk individually, but we had pretty much said 'goodbye' to the weekend campfires, underage drinking, random 'freestyling' to Dr Dre or Do Or Die (eeek, I really just dated myself).  Campfires, drinking, and freestyling still existed in all of our lives - we just didn't do them together anymore.  Sometimes we would see each other at campfires or even in the hallway, but that bond of 'family' we had built together no longer existed and simply, it was always awkward.

I was devastated when Joe broke up with me.  There were no specific details or reasons why, except for the fact that we were fifteen years old - and well, that was that.  Josh became extremely awkward around me when Joe and I broke up.  Which was weird because Josh was so disconnected (or seemed to be) from love and what not - that I expected him to be the LAST person to feel weird around me.  Oddly enough, he was the one that brought the most tension.  I never understood why.  I mean, Joe broke up with me - why is Josh being weird around me???  It's clear, upon reflection, that what fifteen year old boy would know how to act around some blubbering girl whose heart just got completely smashed?

Meh.  Regardless, we went through the rest of our high school days sort of being friends.  I believe that at the end of every school year we subconsciously made sure to sign each others year books - just to make sure we wouldn't forget each other.

I don't think I've seen him since 1999.

I have since re-connected with Josh.  He has flourished within his talents and moved to the West Coast to become something.  And he did.  We don't speak often, but I have his songs in my itunes and his fifteen year old self taped to the one last collage that I have kept  over the years and through all of my moves.

I'm not sure why I'm blogging about him, I just woke up this morning, decided to listen to him, and felt compelled to talk about him.  This next video sucks in quality, but is my favorite song by him.  Not that anyone reads this thing, but I like to document video's that I like so that I can easily access them instead of trying to remember where they all are on the big ol' world wide web.