May 22, 2012: an unforgettable day that started with a surprise post on my Facebook wall.
Fina! I don’t know why, but you were in a dream of mine the other day, yelling at me because you didn’t like the way I was filling out my paperwork. Don’t ask, I have no idea. Have a nice day! – Joey
Joey hadn’t posted on my Facebook wall since 2009, and even then it was only to wish me happy birthday, so it was a surprise to see he’d had a dream about me, especially considering we’d hardly talked since high school. Previously, we only talked because of a keyboarding class we took our senior year. Had our names not been alphabetically close, we wouldn’t have been seating-chart neighbors who talked out of convenience.
He and I belonged to vastly different social groups and both were coupled in puppy-love, longer-than-typical high school relationships. I was the semi-popular, totally mean girl who never looked outside of her own clique to realize other people had cool lives, too. He was the sweet, set-designing thespian who adored his girlfriend and friends. Nobody hated Joey. They couldn’t. He was funny and charming. Considering our differences, a connection didn’t seem logical. But I remember, and always have remembered, his wit and kindness. He spoke to me as if I was special and kind, the same way he spoke to everyone. It struck me then even though I wouldn’t have admitted it. But he, rather than assuming I was exactly what everyone else claimed I was, saw through it and spoke to me as if we were old friends (we’d gone to school together since 5th grade).
Flash forward to May 22:
His kindness didn’t surprise me (I had always remembered him for this), but his boldness did. I wouldn’t have posted about my dream out of embarrassment. So I responded, out of respect for his bravery,
If I had a dollar for every time a guy told me that I was in his dreams…
And he quipped back,
….you could afford to take me to dinner.
The song is perfect.
I thought so. ❤