I feel like I’m a pretty entertaining person. Once you get passed the Resting African FaceTM, mild social awkwardness, and random desires to just not say words, you’ll come to realize that I can be the life of room. I wasn’t always like this all the time however. The Resting African FaceTM was once on at all times and I could turn an entire room silent with nothing but an emotionless stare. That is until I met the third person who would have a significant impact on who I am today. The boy. The goat. Freezy2ez himself. Alen. Leonardo. Prospere. The two of us have been in the same school since elementary but actually didn’t meet until 5th grade. How I ended up friends with him is still something I wonder about, but it happened. The hyper extroverted kid who cracked jokes all the time became friends with the introverted death of the party. It was something straight out of a cliché book. From the moment I met him however, my entire life would change. You might have friends. They might be the most amazing people you’ve ever met. But they will never be an Alen.

The first memory I have of him is in my 5th grade social studies class. He was funny. So funny that even I couldn’t hold back laughs as he cracked jokes in class and subsequently ended up in the back of the classroom. He was short, had a fivehead that stood out from the abundance of other fiveheads in the school, and had a voice that to this day I find to be the most unique one I’ve ever heard. I don’t actually remember much of fifth grade other than doing superman poses while waiting on line to get into class. The biggest significance he’s had in my life are after we went to middle school and became a lot closer. It’s common knowledge that when you spend time with someone you start to pick up on their mannerisms. He was honest about everything, found a way to make jokes even in situations that were tense in order to relax the nerves of the people, charismatic, hardworking, the list goes on. He was the competition that helped me maintain a high work ethic through middle school. He was the reason why, by bringing up a random comment, I decided to stray from the path of a doctor and instead become the family disappointment. We are still extremely close to this day and he, with every interaction we have, pushes me to be a better version of myself than I was before. So you may have friends. They may be amazing lifelong friends with experiences some can only dream of. But they are no Alen.