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3 Favorite Things

 I was recently asked by a friend what I was most happy doing. Quickly three things came to mind that were most definitely the three things that I was most happy doing.

The first is waking up before dawn, something I rarely do by choice, putting on old shoes and heading down to the bay to wade through the mud brown water searching for the scuttling legs of a crab.

I only get to crab once or twice a year and it is truly something that gives me more calmness and tranquility than any other activity.

The second thing is more of a feeling than an event. It's when you're really into a game. It's when you know that your actions make or break the outcome of the game.

So you fight and you struggle and you doing everything you can to ensure victory. That's a great feeling.

However, it was the third thing that came to mind that I realized was the most important, probably the happiest I've ever been. Junior year of high school was by no means an easy year.

SATs, synthesis papers, Advanced Placement tests and Spanish III all made junior year one I will never forget. I've never been so stressed for so long.

Socially it wasn't easy either. I couldn't seem to keep all my friends happy, and I had a girlfriend I wasn't too sure cared for me beyond my ability to get her invited places.

All of these things made me a stressed and generally unhappy guy. So when I was dismissed from the last exam, analysis advanced, it was like feeling all of that pressure being lifted.

As I walked the halls of school for the last time for a few months, plans were being developed to celebrate the day.

My friends and I would go to lunch at a restaurant I'd never been, but had a great outside patio that we could enjoy the sun in.

Then we would go to a swimming pool and finally to a friends house where we could all spend the afternoon before a big party that night. It seemed like the perfect day, and for the most part it was.

The food at the restaurant was terrible, something I remembered after ordering, but it didn't matter. The sun and the freedom we all felt was enough to keep us all happy. I was with my five or six best friends.

People I'd counted on, and for the first time in a long time, had always been there for me. I felt like I was with my family, people I could always depend on.

We joked and talked and moved towards the pool. Whenever you go swimming for the first time in the year you always come to the realization that there really isn't much to do in a pool. Besides tanning, an activity that guys can't do alone and especially not in groups, the pool offers little enjoyment for teenagers.

Once again, it didn't matter. We just enjoyed being somewhere besides school, with nothing to worry about but sunburn. From the pool we moved to my friend Anthony's house. That was when the real happiness began.

I remember it like a flashback in a movie, where everything is brighter and it seems like somebody turned up the lights really high. I know it's corny, but it really was the happiest I've ever been.

If you think it's stupid that I'm my happiest around five or so other guys just sitting around, you've never had true friends. We sat around talking and summing up the year.

For a few hours I sat in a porch swing as various people came and went, and I talked to them all and never stopped smiling. That truly was the happiest I've ever been. Just thinking about that afternoon, and the freedom of it makes me happy.

That night my girlfriend fulfilled my fears and dumped me on the same day she first showed up with a car and right before we left for the party. The party was a disaster and I had to leave early with a friend.

The next day I drove three hours with my brother out of town, and my dad was in the hospital. It was a bad few days to say the least.

However, none of that, even the worst of events that night, could have taken away from that afternoon. I hope I have a lot more days like that, because those are what make all of life worth it.

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