Livin' Your Best Life

LIVIN’ YOUR BEST LIFE

“What’s going on?”

Chris looked at his two friends, a smile splitting his features.

“Nothin’” said Rita.

“Not too much,” said Sammy.

The three had been friends forever. They had attended the same elementary school, and were now in their last year of high school together. Rita was going off to university, as was Sammy. Both were smart, and worked hard for their grades.

The same couldn’t be said for Chris, and that was, perhaps, part of the problem. Chris was stupid-smart — the smartest person in the room at any time. His mind was amazing. Present him wth a theory, or expected outcome, or show him a schematic of any machine, and he got it. Super fast. In fact, he had universities busting down his door, because he was not only extremely smart, he was also athletic. His sports were baseball and track. He could bat like a pro, run like the wind, jump like he had springs in heels, and, oddly, shoot a bow and arrow like he was Robin Hood.

But, Chris didn’t care. Maybe “didn’t care” was the wrong phrase. Instead of moving on to the next phase of his life, Chris had no desire to move on. He liked the status quo. It was driving his parents nuts. They said he had “failure to launch” syndrome. And he knew it, but didn’t care. He liked his life the way it was, and didn’t want anything to change. Including not attending university.

“Why not, Chris?” asked his Dad.

“Please, Chris,” begged his mom. “This is important! A free ride of university! Both academic and athletic scholarships!”

“What are you waiting for?” his dad asked.

Chris had just shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe next year,” was all he said.

Right now, his friends were wondering the same thing as his parents.

“Sooooo—” started Sammy.

“Don’t even, man. If you’re going to start on me going to school, don’t.  I’m not ready for university. Hell, I have a hard time getting ready for school in the morning.”

Rita smiled at Chris. “I was hoping to have you on campus next year.”

Chris smiled. “I’m sure you’ll find another goofy guy to hang out with.” He looked over at Sammy. “You seem to be a pretty strong ‘weird guy’ magnet already.”

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” said Sammy.

“No, seriously. They’ll flock to you, Rita. You have the “I love weird guys’ pheromone. They’ll find you, don’t worry.”

He pointed at Sammy.

Sammy snorted. “Speak for yourself, man! I’m not weird. You’re weird!”

The friends all laughed, because it was true. Chris was the weird one. He never took anything too seriously, never brooded over things that didn’t work out, and just enjoyed his life. 

The three of them were best friends. They were together all the time. Chris referred to them as the three musketeers.

“Three muskateers ... if one of them was a girl,” he’d once said to Rita. She’d stuck her tongue out at him.

Chris and Sammy had played on some of the same teams when they were younger — Little League Baseball, house league basketball, and a couple of years on the tournament travelng team. But, as they aged, Chris had excelled at sports, and Sammy was just pretty good. He played on the varsity baseball team, but he saw a lot of bench time. Same with track and field. He was pretty fast, and made the relay team, but was either the second or third leg, while Chris was the last leg — the closer. But it didn’t bother Sammy because he had plans — big academic plans. And those included a BA in math and chemistry, then a Master’s in physics, and a PhD in astrophysics. Sammy was literally shooting for the stars.  He worked hard, and it paid off. He was sure he was going to achieve his dreams.

Rita, too, had plans. She’d been accepted into a prestigious engineering program, and was focussing on environmental issues, with hopes of saving the world. Like her two friends she had played sports — basketball and field hockey, and luckily had been able to depend on her marks for scholarships and bursaries because there were not a lot of schools offering field hockey scholarships. She was also an unpublished fiction writer, but neither of her friends knew about it — she considered it a secret hobby, as opposed to a career path.

But now, the trio was breaking up — Sammy going west, Rita going east, and Chris just staying where he was. He’d made noises about staying at high school for another year, playing more sports, but nothing had come of it. Instead, he was going travel — North America, for sure, maybe Europe and Asia, hopefully Australia and New Zealand.

“Made any travel plans yet?” asked Rita.

“Nah,” said Chris. “I’m going to wait until school’s over, then look into it.”

“So,” Sammy started, “You’re going to graduate with us, but instead of going to university, backpack around the world. Alone.”

“That’s the plan,” said Chris, smiling. “You gotta admit, this is the best time to go, before I get old, and have ‘responsibilities’—” He made air quotes with his fingers. “— I don’t want to be like my parents, sighing whenever there’s a travel show on. No. I wanna go while I can still walk up a flight of stairs.”

Chris snorted. “Seriously? You’re parents are the same age as mine. They’re not ancient. Don’t they both belong to a tennis club? And doesn’t your mom jog, and teach yoga in her spare time? And doesn’t your grandma still cycle? And play pickle ball?”

Chris just smiled. “Because they had me, and a mortgage, and jobs, they aren’t free to travel. I have no kids, no house, and no job. I’m doing it now, while I can.”

Secretly, both Rita and Sammy were jealous of Chris’s plans. They would both love to take a gap year, but were too frightened that they’d lose their places in their chosen fields, or that they’d lose their academic edge and become mediocre.

But apparently that didn’t bother Chris. He wasn’t worried about anything. He never worried whether or not he made the team, whether or not he did well in school. Nothing seemed to phase him. Not the pressure from his parents, not the fact that his friends had plans and he had none. No. Chris lived in the moment.

*****

Over Christmas break the trio got together for the first time since the end of summer. Both Rita and Sammy were loving school. They thought they had loved high school, but university was so much better. In high school each had a few like-minded friends who shared their passion for learning, but in uni, there were dozens — maybe even hundreds of new people — who liked the same things that each enjoyed. And so many clubs and activities. Rita, in particular was in seventh heaven. And she had met someone. The two meshed so well. She was happy.

Sammy was also living his best life! His department gave astronomy students access to their state-of-the-art telescope — a space geek’s happy place. And he loved his classes. He’d even joined a softball team.

The three friends met up on the Thursday before Christmas, at Chris’s house. They were struck by the changes in Chris’s appearance.  

“Dude! What the hell! You look horrible! What’s going on?” a shocked Sammy said.

Chris laughed.  

“Ha! Leave it to you to make a guy feel good about himself.”

Rita looked concerned as well.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Right as rain!” he said jokingly. “Just some bad water in Asia. I ran out of purification tables, and just drank the tap water, like an idiot. As you can tell,” he waved his hands in front of his body. “It took it’s toll. But I’m on the mend.”

“I hope the hell you are!” said Rita. “We can’t have a musketeer down!”

*****

When the three friends saw each other next it was in the spring. Again, they were stunned by the changes in Chris. He was so skinny, is skin was sallow, his hair lank.

“Are you using?” asked Rita.

Chris burst out laughing.

“No! I’m not using. The water thing — shigellous — is persistent. I’m just taking longer to than expected to shake it.” He smiled. “I look like hell, but I’m still Chis the Amazing.” He looked at his friends. “So tell me all about your first year at college. Was it everything you hoped for? Did I miss a good time?”

His friends took Chris at his word. He looked sick, but he was still Chris. They shared stories about their classes, friends, clubs, and all the socializing they were experiencing.

“You’d have a blast, man,” sad Sammy. “So many really cool people. It’s amazing!”

“Yeah,” sad Rita, “you’d fit right in. Have you made your applications for September yet?”

“I have!” said Chris. “In fact, because I deferred for a year, I sent out requests to three of my top picks. I’m looking forward to starting classes.”

Later, Rita and Sammy left together after a tough game of Katan — Chris won. He always won, so it was no big disappointment or surprise. They walked home together.

“He looks really rough,” said Rita.

“I know. I hope he shakes this virus. He looks like hell.”

Rita smiled. “But he’s still the same old Chris. Living his best life.”

*****

One week later, Chris was dead. Chris’s mom asked Rita and Sammy to come to the house.

When she opened the door, her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She hugged Chris’s two best friends, tightly. She stepped back, and looked at the friends.

“He told no one,” she sad. “His father and I knew nothing until three days ago. And he swore us to secrecy.”

They walked through the house into the kitchen — a kitchen they would never see Chris in, again.

“What happened?”

“When Chris was five years old, he had leukaemia. He missed his kindergarten year of school. But he was cured, and went on living his life. He never told anyone. He said he didn’t want to be known as the kid with cancer. Unfortunately, it came back. He kept it a secret from everyone, including us. He was eighteen, and made the decision not to have treatment himself. Because he was eighteen, he was entitled to medical privacy. We never knew.” She wiped the tears from her eyes.

“But, why no treatment?” said Rita, tears welling in her eyes. “He beat it once, and he could do it again.”

“The first bout took a terrible toll on him. He was so sick. He spent months in the hospital. And he was old enough to remember. He told us that he didn’t want to go through that again. He told us that was the reason he didn’t want to go to university. He wanted to see the world before he died.”

Rita started quietly weeping.

“If I had known,” she sobbed, “I would have deferred this year, and travelled with him”

Sammy hugged her close. “Me too. What’s the point of school when I could have spent the time with Chris. That would have been so worth it.”

Chris’s mom looked at the friends.

“He said you would say that. That’s why he never asked you. He knew that you would give up your dreams to be with him. He didn’t want that. He wanted you both to live your best life. He was living his.”

She handed them a letter.

“Chris left this for you.”

Sammy opened the envelope, and together Rita and Sammy read the letter.

Dudes:

Sorry about the surprise, but I didn’t want to burden you. I know you’re both saying “I would have waited to go to school, and we could have travelled together,” but that’s not what I wanted. I needed to experience this myself. And let me tell you, it is a wonderful, beautiful world that we live in. Make the time! It’s so worth it!

This was my journey, and I chose my own adventure. I travelled to some really exotic places, and I felt you both with me. You are my best friends. And, I will miss you. Of course you’ll both miss me. Why not? I was amazing!

See you in the next life!

Chris