See You Space Cowboy
Last night a close friend from college early adulthood passed away. Normally, I would just (as though this is a common event) make a remembrance post in Facebook as a way to put in words how much this person meant to me, but I choose LiveJournal as this medium is a better representation of the time in which our friendship was most active.
Natalia was (never ever I have hated a word this much) one of the most amazing people I have ever had a friendship with in my life. I still remember the first time we met, not even twenty yet, I was at "Club X", a sub-21 club in downtown San Diego (these did not exist). Being that I was a 19 year old boy (yes boy) in college, initially I was like "oh she is super cute", and started talking to her. I quickly found out that she liked anime and the rest was history. Over the course of the next 5-8ish years our friendship would be defined by awesome memories, like driving to LA to see, in her words, "a pretty Scottish man dance around singing" (Belle and Sebastian), hanging out at UCSD and watching anime, or when we drove to LA last minute for a party and I ended up being the only sober one, but feel asleep driving as she tried her hardest to keep me awake, or, when we went to the first 94.1 Independence Jam to see (and this is important because music was very important to Nat) Muse, Secret Machines, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Deathcab for Cutie. As we were walking to concert I vividly remember her saying "JOSH!! My TEENS ARE OVER...I AM SO OLD".
I could easily type every quote of Nat's in all caps because that is how energetic and full of life she was. I do not think it is a coincidence that I made it out of my twenties which such a "die hard" attitude about the things I like love. In fact, this trait of hers is what made her so significant in my life and development as a person. I had serious identity issues as a young 20 year old (as serious as those can be for a middle class white male). I was desperately trying to figure out who I was, who and what type of people I liked, what my style was, and through all of it, Nat was hands down the most supportive person you could have while going through what on its surface seems so...superficial. She would entertain (with absolute fervor) the most inane arguments, such as who is better, Roy Mustang or Alex Row (Alex....duh), always be down for hookah in PB, or to go with me to see Metric at the Casbah (another special memory, I mean, Emily Haines touched my face). Nat is one of the key reasons I made it out of my 20s as the person I am, a person I am extremely happy with. I only wish I could've conveyed that to her in person, but that is life.
She may of been taken away from us far too early (yes, too fucking god damn early) but there is small bit of solace that not only do I have the above and many other memories, but that any time I watch Furi Kuri (FLCL), hear the music from the Pillows, and see Haruhara and her vespa (I mean come on, that is just how fucking cool Nat was, that one of the coolest characters in all of anime will remind me of her) I will INSTANTLY be reminded of her and the fun adventures we had as "kids".
Nat in anime form...
The last conversation/interaction I had with Nat last year was on Facebook in which she posted a screenshot from an anime she was watching. She ended that conversation with the title of the post. It a bit of sad irony, that is the last words you see following one of the most memorable anime deaths of all time...and just like when I first saw that ending, I am not crying.
