{thankful for} Lorin Merkley (miss you so much)

I am so thankful for the time I got to spend with Lor. What a great friend. We had our ups and downs, when he wanted to be more than friends and I just wanted to be friends or I wanted to be more than friends but he liked some other girl (usually Catherine!) hahah. We all know how those high school boy/girl friendships were! Seems so silly now. But despite all those petty arguments we'd get into about that stuff, Lorin was an amazing friend to me. No matter what time it was he was ALWAYS willing to meet me somewhere if I needed to talk, or come over so I could vent to him. He wasn't even just a great friend to me, but all you who knew him know how much he meant as a friend in your lives as well. There was one night when I was having a rough time with something so I was hanging out at his house, and he got a phone call from a friend of his who was also really struggling with something (something worse than my situation) and needed to leave her house immediately. Without any sense of reluctancy, Lorin was there helping her. An amazing friend. An amazing musician. Every now and again when I'm playing the piano I'll remember the songs he'd play. He always had some kind of "Ya, I know I'm good" smirk on his face while he played, but there was passion there. So talented at football, though he'd be such a WEENIE! after he'd lose a game. I remember one night after a game that QC lost, he was taking me home and he was soooo pissed that they lost, he was getting something out of the glove box of his truck and slammed it closed as hard as he could out of anger and smashed his finger in it when he slammed it closed and his finger was bleeding all over and I said, "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET! CALM DOWN!" Hahah.

Even still, he was a great friend. Every year on this day and on his birthday I will remember him very fondly and be thankful that I got to spend the time with him that I did.

Thanks for being such a great friend to me, Lor!!!

-Ash