Ode to Joe

The first thing I recalled talking to him about was the game Super Smash Brothers for Nintendo 64. I was the master of that game. I could beat any character, at any level, with almost any character. He told me he could beat me in it or something along those lines and I grew furious. "How dare he challenge me to the game of which I am number one!" A month or two later Joe and I became better friends and he came over to my house and the game was on. He picked Samus and I picked Captain Falcon and we were to battle in the Donkey Kong Stage. The game was set. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... I wont brag but, I owned him. (Sorry Joe). 

Together Joe and I studied several religions to find what was right for us. We talked philosophy constantly, and we did practically everything together. It was always Rob and Joe! Joe and Rob! And whenever one of us wrote something, or made something, the other had to put either the finishing touches in or add his two cents. It was like that till about 11th grade. For four long years we were best of friends, and nothing was wrong. 

Suddenly I got a girlfriend. I was the first out our posse to have a girlfriend. Dan started dating Jennifer soon after, but he stopped hanging out and completely douched out. I still hung out and stuff. I recall getting really mad at him once because he got pissed I chose to hang out with Penelope, Brandi and Keegan other then going and playing Halo at Jake's with all of them and I began to dislike Joe's morals and things along those lines. I was tired of playing Halo all the time and wanted to hang out with my girlfriend. 

We soon became very different people. Joe was growing up in the exact opposite areas then I was. Whenever the rest of us would make fun of someone, not to their face but behind their back for kicks, Joe would always question why we did it. It got annoying and soon we would do things just to see what he would do. We soon began to dislike Joe because he was changing all of a sudden. He would always talk about honor, and about his capabilites and stuff like that, and the rest of us werent all that interested. 

He started dating this girl named Caitlin and they would constantly tickle each other and ignore us sometimes and it got really annoying. So what did we do when people annoyed us? Talk to them about it? Work it out? No, we stopped inviting them places, and hanging out with them and let them figure it out and come back. Joe didnt do that, like most people did. He spent all his time with her, and he asked us why we didnt invite him places, and we would just say we assumed he was busy, or we didnt do anything. We didnt care at that point how he felt. We were hatefilled and unforgiving individuals. 

One night, Omar, Gary, Lee, Jaime and I were hanging out at Gary's. Omar and I went into another room and were talking about Joe. We were talking about all the things hes done that annoyed us. So we typed down a bunch of things hes done over the years, asked Jaime and Lee for their input and had a really long list. What did we do about this? Talk to Joe about it? Delete the list? Nope. We decided to print it out and leave it on his porch. So he would get the point, and we wouldnt have to see what happened when he found it out. 

He knew it was us, and I felt bad. I thought we should of handled it another way, and that was waaaay too cruel. But word got back to me that Joe said things like "I'm more mature then them" and "I dont think its true." I got mad because it was true. All the things on that list were true, but the way we expressed it to him about it was immature. I almost cut off my friendship with him then and there. But how could I forgot and go on without every little thing I do, think and have reminding me of his presence in my life? How could I treat him like that? I couldnt for long. 

I found someone on the same level with me that Joe is with Caitlin. I know what he felt and why he expressed it, and how its easy to not be able to pay attention to those around you when someone you're completely obsessed with is within arm's reach. I know what he went through. And if I were him, and looked at all of us, I would think we were complete Jackasses. Whether he does, or did, he stilled tried to make things better for everyone instead of himself. Earlier I apologize to him for everything in the past, and him and I have reached a new level in our friendship.