Do you remember when and where you met your best friend? Is your best friend like you, or are they the opposite? Do you share the same qualities of your best friend? Here’s a story of one of my best friends. His name is Joe, and he’s also a writer on Associated Content. You can find his profile by clicking here.
You can also manually type his URL by putting http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1394559/joseph_p_kruger.html At this time of this article, he’s still a new writer, hopefully I can convince him to write more. He took creative writing in college, whether or not he does it is another story. This is my story.
In 1996, I got my first job at Hot’n’Now in South Haven, Michigan. We had just moved to Michigan from Florida at the very end of 1995, and I really didn’t know anyone. Moving in the middle of High School can be rough on any teenager, and I was no exception. I was taking it rather hard, my whole life was left behind in Florida. Like many teens, I rode my bike around town filling out applications. My dad had drove me to South Haven, and told me he’d meet me in a few hours. It was still the 90’s so we didn’t have cell phones. We relied on pay phones, and land line phones, and that beeper that my dad carried. I filled out my application, and I can still remember my interview with Carrie. One of the questions I was asked, which I have been asked many times since, was one that they don’t prepare you in school to answer during an interview. “Why should we hire you over another applicant? What makes you better than them?”
Have you ever had that deer in the headlights look? I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, I muttered something to the effect that I wasn’t sure, but I would try my best. That was a good enough answer, and a week later, I stood proud in my white tee-shirt with the bright colored red hat and red apron.
About two weeks went by, I worked a couple of my 3 hour shifts from Hot’n’Now and I was at home on a Saturday. The phone rang, and my dad said it was for me. Hoping that it was one of my friends from Florida, I answered, and quickly discovered it was not anyone that I knew. After saying hello, the voice on the other end said, “Hi, this is Joe! Do you want to come over and play Monopoly?”
As a 16 year old, my first response was, “What?” I hadn’t played Monopoly since I was 14 and we still lived in Florida. Like most teens my age, I had this preconceived idea of what was cool and what was babyish. On top of that, I had no idea who I was talking to.
He repeated that he was Joe. When I told him I don’t know a Joe, he further explained, “I’m the fat, funny guy that works on the grill! You don’t remember me? We’ve worked together a few times.” I told him I didn’t remember him, which I didn’t. It’s always taken me a few times meeting someone before I remember them. I told him I couldn’t come over to play Monopoly, I wasn’t allowed. This wasn’t entirely true, although I would have had to rely on my parents for a ride. We didn’t live in South Haven, we lived about 25 miles away. Still new to Southwestern Michigan, there was no way my parents were going to let me ride my bike that far on my own. They’d have killed me if they knew how far exactly I DID go on my bike that summer as it was.
A couple days later, Joe introduced himself at work. He walked up and said, “Hi! I’m Joe. I called you the other day and invited you over to play Monopoly.”
I looked at him, trying to take in the sight in front of me. Joe was a big guy, he was about 6′ tall, taller than me by a good 4-5″. He was chubby, still is, but he doesn’t say he’s fat, he refers to himself as pleasantly plump. I was really skinny, he was about twice my size, a little intimidating. He had these nerdy, brown glasses on, and hair that poofed out around his hat. I couldn’t say much about the hair, my hair did the same thing. My first impressions of him, I thought he looked like a nerd. I did talk to him that day, and began talking to him more as we worked together.
Soon after, I began going to his house after work, and before work. I spent a lot of time there. As the typical 16 year old, I didn’t want to be home at all. Joe’s mother was a nice mom, she was divorced, and was having a rough time. While I was a good kid that always listened to my parents at the time, Joe was the average 16 year old, rebellious, mouthy, etc. The only trait that I had was that I was mouthy. He was about as opposite of me as friends could be. He would get drunk, and he smoked, and did drugs. The one thing about Joe, he never pressured me into doing any of it. He asked me once, I said no, and he was cool with that. He never picked on me.
Joe discovered girls. At this point in the story, I will skip a couple disagreements about girls that we had, he already knows I was mad at him for those situations and I don’t need to share those with the world. Joe had this one girlfriend that he became obsessed about. He even got her name tattoed on his arm, although he covered it later. They eventually broke up, as relationships don’t last long periods of time during that age bracket for many.
On Joe’s 18th birthday, he had broken down one day while up in Holland. He called around trying to find someone to give him a ride. Most of us said we couldn’t, but then we changed our minds and went to find him walking home. After 4 hours of searching for Joe, we went back to his house. I might add those of us looking for him discovered each other by a truck stop where he had done most of his calling. We found his car there. When we got back to his house, Joe was sitting on the couch. As mentioned before, I only said I was nice, I never said I wasn’t mouthy. He heard it from me, I had wasted 4 hrs looking for him. After yelling at him, I did wish him a happy birthday.
After graduation, I went away to an academy in Florida, we we didn’t really talk to each other anymore. I was introduced to the internet, and I had his e-mail, but I really wasn’t into the internet that much. I went to chat rooms at the time, but that was it.
When he moved back to South Haven, we started hanging out again. In 2003, I began doing the work that I now do today. Joe worked with me on some projects, and eventually I had to fire him for poor work attendance. We had done a job at a K-mart, and while I was doing everything we were suppose to be doing, the manager complained about all of it. We were from an outside company contacted to do a specific job, and the manager wanted us to do something that was not part of it. Joe was annoyed by her, I was trying to kiss up. In the end, the manager loved Joe and didn’t like me. That’s how it usually goes, I was the one saying no, we weren’t going to do something. When they called the company to complain, the company set them straight, but that wasn’t enough for the company.
For about a week before I made the decision to fire him, Joe was looking at a house in South Haven to buy on a land contract. I told him not to do it, you never know what’s going to happen. The day I made my decision to fire him, I had already found a replacement. I had met him, and he shared the news of buying the house. Nothing like making me feel bad, because then I had to share with him that he no longer was going to be working with me. In the end, it worked out for the best. He was able to get a job at Wendy’s where he stayed for quite a while. If it hadn’t been for that, he wouldn’t have met the love of his life.
We’ve had our spats, and disagreements. Over the years, I’ve seen him get obsessed with women, and his world shrinks to revolve around them. His true love that he’s with, when I first met her, I wasn’t sure it would work with him. They’ve been together for a few years now, and I have no doubt that she’s perfect for him. She’s an adorable gal, blonde hair, Joe’s lucky to have her. She had her work cut out for her. When they got together, Joe was around 26 or 27, and still living like he was a teenager. He would stay up partying until 4-6 am, and thought nothing about calling people at 11 pm at night if they had something advertised in the newspaper. Over the years, she’s whipped him into shape, and it amazes me how much he’s changed for the better. They belong together, and I know that it won’t end in divorce- She’ll kick his butt if he messes up.
Last fall, I acquired my life insurance license. This past spring, he actually was talking to me about life insurance, and wanting to make sure his girlfriend would be taken care of when he dies. This was the biggest shock of them all
To describe Joe in a few works would be nothing short of a miracle. He’s a work in progress. He’s been with me through some pretty rough times, and some really good times. We’ve worked together with some projects, and sometimes we don’t work together. Often, he’ll come up with an idea but then doesn’t follow through with it. I’ve taken several of his ideas and developed them. In fact, in 2010, I opened a store on Amazon and Ebay based on his coaching and experience. My parents and sister could never understand what I saw in Joe. They never saw what I saw. To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what I saw. There were many times he drove me nuts. He would do things that just shocked me, and I couldn’t get over that he would even do such a thing. I know there are things that I have done where he thought the same thing. For a short time, I was always getting mad at him about something and trying to correct him. I had good intentions on trying to correct his actions, but I know he felt like I was looking down on him which was certainly not the case. His girlfriend has been able to do in 3 years what I was not ever able to do- To change and think about others.
Joe has a unique sense of humor that defines him as, Joe. It’s hard to describe. He’s very personable, talented, and can be rather random at times. I’ve never met anyone quite like him before. It doesn’t matter if we’re doing anything, Joe and I can have conversations that go on for hours about absolutely nothing. The other night, he told me he’s decided he’s going to run for President in the 2016 election. He’s got to be the complete opposite of me, but he has all of the traits that I admire and wish I had.
While we may be opposite of each other, this can compliment a friendship. A true friend is something that has been with you through the rough times and the good times. A true friend is the one that picks you up from the hospital after having a procedure and takes you to subway, and doesn’t laugh at you because you’re still high on the anesthesia and still a little loopy. It was that experience that I knew I had a true friend for life. We may live in different states now, and I miss him like crazy. I don’t want to return up there, and while I keep trying to talk him into coming here, I know it’ll never happen. One must hold on to hope. To Joe, the coolest guy I’ve ever known, and to whom I can proudly say, ya, he’s my best friend. 