The Butterfly Effect

"A tiny butterfly flapping its wings in Central Park can cause a violent hurricane in the Pacific."

Have you ever heard this before? I've been playing a Playstation 4 game called "Until Dawn" where you make choices that can alter how the game plays out (none or eight of the characters may live to the end). I find the concept facinating and I've been obsessed with playing the game lately. While I'm not sure about the butterfly example, I whole heartedly understand the concept of small choices heavily impacting your life. I've actually been thinking about it a lot lately.

Last spring, I offhandedly decided to take a hip hop class. That seemingly innocuous decision severely altered my life in the best way. When I re-entered UND in 2014, I didn't have any friends at school; no one to sit with in class, hang out with in the Union, etc. My first year back was pretty lonely. In hip hop though, I ended up meeting a bunch of new friends.

Pretty much every night this semester, my new friends Kacie and Maia were over at my house. We were watching movies, or playing games, or studying. It really didn't matter, I just liked hanging out with them. Half our group text is about what we should do that night, and the other half is discussing what we should eat. My inner fat kid has recently escaped, Maia is a giant (over 6 feet tall!), and Kacie is a garbage disposal with the metabolism of a teenage boy. We are basically the forever hungry three muskateers. We also went to the movies, women's hockey games, and out to the bars occasionally.

Maia is literally one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She's funny, kind, and I tell her pretty much everything. She was over almost every night in December, watching Christmas movies with me while I wrapped presents. We also set up a TV and DVD player in the kitchen and marathoned Disney movies and rom coms as we baked and decorated Christmas cookies, while our men played video games in the basement and occasionally taste tested. It's one of my absolute favorite memories of 2015. For Christmas, I bought her some magnets with picture of us on them, and a pair of red fleece pajama pants with moose on them (because she loves moose, apparently). She got me a piggy bank that looks like an old school Coke machine (and I LOVE it!). One time, she came over and made us Indian tacos which were AMAZING. We have plans to go hard at the gym together this semester.

She is taking an extra year to pick up a double major and then she's planning on going to graduate school here, so she'll be around for awhile. If Ethan and I weren't planning on having kids in the near future, I'd definitely ask her if she and her boyfriend would want to move in with us. Though she does work at a daycare and she loves kids so maybe she wouldn't mind. I secretely hope she'll ask about our living arrangement so I can casually drop how cheap the rent is and that we have two extra bedrooms. But that's just wishful thinking on my part, I think, and quite possibly a huge stretch.

Unfortunately, Kacie moved back to the cities after we graduated a few weeks ago. Kacie was also over almost every night as well, and we were either watching movies or screaming profanities at each other playing Mario Kart and Mario Party. Unlike my friendship with Maia, Kacie and I base our relationship on insults and sarcasm. Don't misunderstand, I love every second of it. It's actually one of the things that drew me to her; she was one of the people I could sass and she'd do it right back instead of getting pissy. She and I had a class together this semester; we passed my phone back and forth playing Monopoly during class (we're model students). We also hung out in the Union between classes. She invited me on a girls' getaway this weekend, but I'm actually in Costa Rica this week with my husband. She did say the offer would (likely) be there next year and if so, I'll definitely take her up on it because it sounds super fun. Hopefully, I'll still get to see her since Mari just moved to Rochester and I'll probably be headed up that way pretty often.

Speaking of best friends, it seems like that label is more precarious now than it was as kids. Maybe I'm just weird about it or worried about others being weird about it, but I hesitate to label my new friends "best friends," but certainly not because I don't feel that way. Stupidly, I don't think Mari would care for me labeling Maia as my best friend (which is stupid, I know. You can totally have more than one best friend). I still love Mari with all my heart and no one can ever replace her. The other problem is, what if Maia doesn't feel the same way and the label weirds her out and she distances herself? Okay, this sounds really stupid, re-reading what I've written, but it's the way I feel so fuck it. Here's the thing though; I love Maia. I tell her almost everything, there's almost no one I'd rather spend my time with. People call us by each other's names on accident because we're always together. We became almost instant friends when we met in hip hop class. Sounds like best friends to me.

Same goes for Kacie. I spent the majority of my time with her the last six months. She was always the first person I texted to hang out or go get food with. I was happy to drive her around after her car accident. If I was getting married this year instead of 2014, these girls would 100% have been my bridesmaids in addition to my other girlfriends. As excited as I was to marry Ethan, I now wish I'd waited so all my hip hop friends could have come.

This post has gotten far too long and a little off topic. Small decisions really can make a huge difference in your life. I'm so grateful that I made that choice to take that hip hop class.