Kirsten Salmela

"Women made such swell friends. Awfully swell. In the first place, you had to be in love with a woman to have a basis of friendship." - Ernest Hemingway

On the flight to Ecuador with Kirsten, I read The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway for the first time, and I don't think I've ever read a quote that captured how I felt about women as perfectly as this.  And there's not a woman in my life who this quote fits better than Kirsten Salmela. 

When it comes to random roommates, I've been pretty damn lucky.  Through random roommates I've created some great friends in Brett, Dave, Michael, Steve, and Dan, all great dudes who, even though the majority of them I haven't lived with in years, I still talk and/or hang out with pretty regularly. But in the fall of 2012, for the first time in my post-home life I was living with women again, and one of those women ended up being Kirsten Salmela.  When I moved into that dingy, beautiful, grimy little house on Eureka, little did I know that in the next nine months or so of living there I would have cultivated a friendship unlike I'd ever had.

I've met few people who know how to live quite like Kirsten does.  She goes for it, all the time, and that combined with a sometimes shockingly filthy mouth was like a black hole, I got near her orbit and she pulled me in immediately.  I don't care if you're gay, straight, in a relationship, or single, I refuse to believe there is a man who has met Kirsten that didn't fall for her for at least a day.  She's that girl, and I love that about her. 

As of writing this, I haven't seen Kirsten since she moved away to Virginia, and man do I miss that girl.  Right now I'm on a nice, sectional couch writing on my laptop with some Netflix playing in the background, and it's really nice, but damn do I miss doing the same thing sitting on that shitty, tattered, obscenely comfortable sofa at Eureka watching Wonder Years and drinking Johnnie Walker black label with that girl.  For now though, I'm going to smile at the fact that she's down there below the Mason Dixon line on the way to making her dreams come true, and she's not just going to make those dreams come true, she's going to make those dreams her bitch.

Cheers,
Andrew

Seeva Hugmeyer

Seeva, or Miss H. as I and several dozen students know her as, is a funny, comic book loving sweetheart and was a fellow student teacher during the the Fall semester at Valleywood Middle School.  She was the interning for the teacher right next door to mine, so I was fortunate enough to see her pretty often during the few months we were at that school together and those few months gave me the chance to get to know this lovely woman.  Miss H has one of the most approachable faces that you'll ever see, she's sweet, confident, and has a spark of energy and wit that let's you know she can dish back anything that you give her (an ability especially useful in a middle school.  There was one time she told me about a student who was being particularly disruptive and she asked him to come in front of the class and make a deal with her, handshake included, that the next time he got out of line there would be a designated punishment.  I believe that he did end up acting up again, and with the students as her witness, he had no choice but live up to his word.  What a great strategy for behavior, right?

Miss H went to a different school after that semester and I haven't seen her since that time, but here and there throughout the year I would send her a text or something about one of the students and she always responded with that trademark good attitude.  I don't know if I'll see her again, but I hope I do because a teacher like that who seems to exude so much passion and seems to genuinely enjoy not just teaching itself, but the students as well, is the exact kind of person that I'd like to have in my life. 

When Captain America throws his mighty shield,
All those who choose to oppose his shield must yield!
 -Andrew (Mr. Thom)

Steaven Lichtenwalter

I met Steve through my roommate Dave during my junior year at MSU, and from the second I met him I liked him.  He's this big, tall dude with kind of crazy hair that is anything but conspicuous, and when he's around it's pretty hard not to notice his presence.

Sadly, I'm never going to see Steaven in this life again after he was recently taken from us.  I heard about it on Super Bowl Sunday 2014, and despite only having hung out with him a couple of times, it was a heartbreaking shock to hear of his death.  I never talked to him outside of when I saw him with Dave, and there are probably dozens of people who will forget more about him than I'll ever know, but for the flash that Steaven was in my life, he was flash of brilliant, optimistic light that had me laughing and smiling whenever he was around.  I'll miss you my friend, and one day I hope to have the honor of seeing you again.

Andrew