GYMING..and background

We like to joke that our friendship is built on the workout mats of our school gym…and it’s not that far from the truth. It’s on those pale, blue mats, with the putrid stench of college insecurity, that I’ve shared more with Rachel than anyone else in my life. Not to get sentimental- it’s just that our workouts combine friendship and aerobics in a way that calms the mind and tones the body. And we’re religious about our workouts- our friends definitely think we have a problem- but it’s really a chance to escape it all and retreat to the blue mats of friendship and crunches.

So here’s a quick background- Rachel and I met in preschool (I’m pretty sure we were bathroom buddies)- fast-forward five years and we meet up at middle school orientation- me, 4’10’’ and painfully shy- and Rachel with a big smile of braces that would melt any middle-school boy’s heart. In high school we were in all the same classes but different groups…and it wasn’t until Ms. Cohen’s Trigonometry class that our friendship began to blossom. We both hated math and science (of’course we went to a Math/Aerospace Magnet)- so we’d study together as a desperate measure to get our work done. And it helped- Trig..check. Physics..check. AP Statistics…err…hesitant check.

And when college acceptances rolled around…we were both in at UC Berkeley (our friend Stacie made us crowns to celebrate). So the friendship didn’t have to stop…we didn’t have to press pause at senior year and hope that the inevitable change of locale and self didn’t alter what we had become. We grew together...we studied together…we worked out together…and got to watch our friendship change and alter in the most meaningful of ways.

So we gym for ourselves…we gym for our friendship…and we gym so we can use our made up past tense of the verb..jammed. The abs are just a byproduct.

DONE

-Jake-