Determination: Angela

I don’t remember our initial meeting. It was somewhere in the Carriage House apartment #309 in Rexburg Idaho. We were freshman roommates. We shared the flat with four others. We didn’t even share a room. Our friendship has gotten better with time, like a good cheese. That first semester, I was still on high school time for classes mode, so my schedule was back to back classes from 8am tell 1pm. I soon discovered, after following a minute behind Angela that we both had classes at the top of the hill at 8am in neighboring buildings. Soon we began the track up the hill together, and eventually in the snow and icy bitter cold winter of Idaho. Now I can only assume that Angela discovered a few things out about me relatively quickly: (1) I am not a morning person and (2) it takes awhile for me to wake up in the mornings. Angela turned into my alarm clock so as for me not to miss a single class at the top of the hill that I hated. To get me going on the walk up the hill, she would sing songs from Primary that I had never heard of, then entire way until I started to sing with her to get me alert for class. She was determined that I would not fail my class.

Flash forward a year, Angela gets married to the high school sweetheart, a year later she is pregnant, two months later, he wanted a divorce. They worked things out, and moved back to their home state. I got to see pregnant Angela on a layover on my way to my mission. She was beautiful pregnant. About a year after her beautiful boy was born, the truth about her husbands decisions came to light, and they got a divorce. I was still on my mission during these events in her life. I wanted to be there for her. I wanted to give her a hug and let her know that everything would be alright. But somehow, she already knew that. I got to see her and her little boy again on another layover on my way home from my mission. She was still the Angela I knew, still determined to be smiling and happy when we talked to each other before my next flight.

After my mission, I went to Hawaii to go to school, and she moved in with her brother and went to school somewhere in her home state. I know life was not easy for Angela as she went to school, worked, and took care of her little boy. We continued to call and write letters to each other. On one such occasion, Angela told me of a date that she had coming up. Two weeks later she called again and said, ‘I know you are going to think that I am crazy, but I am engaged.’ Silence on my end of the phone. ‘Hello? Are you there?’ I reassured her that I was there. I told her that it was hard for me to believe, and also hard on me because how could she find love twice and I could not find it at all. I don’t remember the answer that she gave me, but I do know that she was happy with her decision, and I supported her in it. She was determined to love and be loved. They got married that summer, and I was her one and only bridesmaid. They have since added three more beautiful children to their eternal family.

I could probably make a book about all of the emails that we have written back and forth to each other on life’s wanderings and puzzlements. She is patient with me and my ever growing skepticism on a variety of issues that I lay out in emails and phone calls. She is still my friend. But, she is determined. She is determined to be happy. She is determined to get back up. She is determined to love and be loved. She is determined (amongst other things) to not see me fail, and I love her for that. I need to be determined like her. I am honored to have her as a friend.