On Single Serving Friends
Today, I’m heading off on a cross-country flight to be the best maid of honour ever for a friend I’ve know for more than half of my life. Airports and planes always remind me of two things:
- Fight Club
- My own experiences with single serving friends
For Those That Don’t Know
In the movie Fight Club (that I’m not talking about), our heroes teach us about single serving friends. Friends that you meet on an airplane, spend a few hours with, and probably never see again.
That’s a single serving friend.
It’s almost romantic in how fleeting it is.
The Most Memorable Single Serving Friend
I don’t even remember her name.
For those that don’t know, I grew up on the East (easssst) Coast. I moved to Ontario at 19 or so.
I was taking a late night flight from Ontario back home to New Brunswick where I lived at the time.
The girl beside me shared how excited she was, we talked about the reason for her travels, and hers took the stage. She was flying from Calgary, Alberta, through Toronto, to New Brunswick. This was her last leg.
She was going to be seeing her long-distance partner. He was stationed at the Army Base back home. You could smell the excitement, the longing. The wait was almost over; she was finally going to be reunited with the love of her life for the first time in almost a year.
I was on my way back from visiting a girl I was seeing at the time. I was (young) sad, dejected, and didn’t want to be coming home. I wanted to be landing with my partner, not leaving.
I kept this to myself.
There was something about the paradox that put me into her corner. I wanted her to soak up every second of this beautiful pain just as badly as she did.
As we got closer to landing, she changed her clothes into a sparkly dress and came back to her seat to adjust her makeup.
She didn’t need to.
We landed and I can still picture her running ahead to find her person.
I’ve never seen this person again. I’ve moved. I’ve moved again. I (thankfully) have a different partner - my amazing wife. I hope that single serving friend is doing well, whatever her outcome was.