Ode to Someone – Written October 9, 2002

2015 Edit:
As we are now adults,
Someone’s name has been changed to “her” and “she”

The first time I met her was an auspicious autumn evening in my first semester at High Point University. A friend of mine who dealt drugs rolled a colossal blunt and showed up at my dorm room where my girlfriend of the time and I were watching a movie. He invited us to go, so we did. As we exited the dorm I noticed a large Jeep Wagoneer I had seen around campus a lot. All I had seen of the driver was a skinny-looking girl with highlighted hair and sunglasses on her forehead. But judging by her “Question Reality” bumper sticker, I had a pretty good idea of what caliber person she was.

We all stepped into the Jeep and began to drive on one of the usual pot smoking routes of High Point. Brian lit the blunt and we all began to smoke and talk. She was relatively quiet, which I later discovered to be a trait of hers that is often not exposed. The car filled with smoke and our minds filled with haze, and we headed back to campus. I later learned from another friend of mine that she was a Legislator for our freshmen class. For the next few months, I spoke to her about three times, all of which were very rudimentary. To be honest, I paid her very little mind. I passed her off as just another chick that gets wasted a lot and removed her from my mind as a person I cared to spend any time with.

Time passed, and I began to get involved in Student Government during my second semester. This, of course, led me to spend more time around her. My best friend Sam, who was President of the freshmen class, and I were walking in the cafeteria one day and saw her sitting at a table with a few other people Sam and I knew. I told Sam that I wanted to get to know her, so we sat down at their table. After five minutes, I was amazed anyone could tolerate this girl for more than six. She was obnoxious, loud, rude, arrogant, and downright mean at times.

Within a half an hour, I was crazy about her. At some point in the conversation, I stopped seeing her as an angry bitch and began to see her as an outspoken woman. She wasn’t afraid to say anything that was in her mind, and I have always been attracted to girls like that; she was also an outstanding raconteur, which is a quality I look for in anyone. I think the point I really began to be attracted to her was when she insulted me for no reason and I realized I had no comeback. It was one of the first times anyone, especially a girl pothead, had ever been able to make me speechless.

I continued to secretly pine for her for a few months, not always wanting her, but always pensively acknowledging my attraction to her each time I saw her. The big problem with this whole thing was that this girl inspired such anxiety in me that I could never even fathom telling her how amazing I thought she was. It never occurred to me that it could go right, which was probably due to her pessimistic nature of everything, and eventually stopped being “ga-ga” over her.

Summer break passed and I came back a very different person than I left. My summer was more like summer camp – where the friends I made in a new hometown were just three-month temporaries until I got back to where I felt at home. I had a blast and came back my sophomore year ready to have a better year than previous, which was awful. She was elected sophomore class Vice President, and as I was elected President, we began to spend a lot of time together.

She and I have developed a very unique friendship. Though she would never admit it to herself or anyone, I think I am the only person that gives her straight up information applicable to her life that is unbiased by emotion. She lives in a house that, based on occupancy and location at 703 Montlieu Avenue (which is full of college students in cheap ghetto housing), is innately dramatic. She lives with Chelsea and Kate, and more recently one of my best friends, Dave. Dave is probably the least dramatic person I know, but Kate and Chelsea can make ample drama for themselves if they put their minds to it. The real trouble starts when one looks at Laura and Colleen – two girls who have an incessant but adored presence at 703. These girls, however, are the fuel to Alexis’ sensationally dramatic tendencies.

Since I have gotten back to High Point in August, I have talked to her more and more. Though I no longer harbor the crush for her as I once did, I continue to have an amazing affection for her. I can undeniably say I love Alexis Winning. She has serious issues and needs professional help, and she has no sense of logic, but she is truly awe-inspiring to talk to and be around. She commands presence and demands attention in a poignant way that many aspire to have but few actually possess. I have been many places and met many people in my nineteen years in existence, but Alexis is the only person who can constantly keep my attention.

Most people are simple to figure out. Most people never shock me. Most people never really inspire or amaze me. Most people can not drive me crazy and at the same time drive me wild. Most people do not pull off neighborhood espionage. Most people are not a rollercoaster of emotion and trauma. Most people view wife-beaters as undergarments. Most people do not see the world in a special way that is too evolved to be understood by the intellects around them. Most people are passionately callow creatures.

Most people do not understand her. I admit, most times I have a hard time viewing life and reason as she does. However, that never makes me stop trying, and it never makes me stop caring. Most of all, it never makes me stop my adulation for her.

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