Some things never change. And for that I am grateful.
I drove up to Berkeley on Tuesday to visit my old roommate from over the summer and my climbing friends from Indian Rock (the local crag in the Berkeley hills). (By the way, I flew home to California on Sunday the 21st.) And as I drove to Berkeley I was filled with excitement and anticipation but also a low sense of dread that things would be different between me and my Indian Rock friends…that somehow things would have changed and we wouldn’t have the bond/friendship we had over the summer anymore. Does that make sense? Actually, let me put this into a bit more perspective before I ask you that.
This past summer, I moved to Berkeley, CA to live in an apartment on Regent St., on South side of campus (the UC Berkeley campus) because driving from Berkeley to my internship in San Rafael was closer than driving from Fremont (30 min vs. an hour). Before I moved there I googled outdoor clubs in the area because I needed something to do when I wasn’t working. I had no friends in Berkeley and was planning to make friends this way. I found CHAOS, or the Cal Hiking And Outdoor Society. They’re awesome. Students and community members alike are welcome, and you basically pay $10 a year to stay on their email list, where people frequently post trips they’re going on with the # of seats still available in their car if anyone wants to join. It’s a great forum for likeminded outdoorsy people.
Anyway, I found their website, where they informed newcomers that to join the email list you simply attend one of their weekly Wednesday dinners at 7:30 at La Burrita on the North side. So on my first Wednesday (I moved in on Sunday June 1) I went to dinner and met Kelly (who’s now one of my closest climbing friends, and is a guy by the way) who told me about Indian Rock. He said it was just a local outdoor bouldering place at Indian Rock Park, 950 Indian Rock Avenue. And that he usually climbs there before Wednesday CHAOS dinners.
So I decided I’d go there next Wednesday and climb with him. Except on the next Monday, I came home from work and discovered I couldn’t watch Netflix because our Internet was down because we’d forgotten to pay the bill. Typical, haha. (I think that happened twice more throughout the summer. Basically we forgot each month.) Anyway, I called Kelly and asked if he was free to climb that day even though he normally climbs on Wednesdays. He wasn’t free, but he said I should just go anyway, because there are always people climbing there and I could make friends.
I was a bit meh about going by myself, but I got over it (not having Netflix at home helped) and hopped in my car and drove up. And to this day, I am infinitely grateful that we forgot to pay the Internet bill that month and that I had no Netflix that Monday.
It started out with just meeting Chris, because he was the only guy there at the time. I just saw him climbing around when I first arrived, so I knew I’d come to the right place. It was great. I spent the first 10 minutes or so just walking around and checking the place out and taking the stairs to the top (versus climbing to the top like I do now) to check out the view (which is super rad by the way; you can see the entire Bay Area and the Golden Gate and everything) and then I walked down to the “pit”, or where the climbers hang out and climb. I was standing there surveying the walls when Chris climbed down from the top (which at the time I thought was an amazing feat and was super impressed by) and introduced himself.
And then I put on my shoes and he led me up the exact same route he’d just climbed down, called Transportation Crack. Being able to climb that gave me a lot of confidence, since I’d thought it was so incredible insane when I first watched him climb it. He was also a pal for guiding me up the climb; I think he was climbing next to me the whole time. Then others filtered in, including Rick, Ari, John, Rob, and Rafael. In that order, too, I think. (I remember my first day at Indian Rock very clearly. Even 6 months later. :)) And then I met Joe later on in the summer.
It’s…it’s always hard to put into words the feelings I have when I think of these friends. And you’d think I’d be good at it by now considering how often I tell this story.
I guess the best way to describe it would be to compare it to any friendship you might have had where you just clicked with a person immediately and the friendship and relationship came easily and your personalities worked and the time you spent with them was always enjoyable. Does that make sense?
That’s kind of what I had with this group of people. Eventually I got to climb with Kelly at IR too, but the core “Crew” consisted of Chris, Rob, Ari, John and Joe. At least during the summer when I was there. And they may have perceived it differently, but that was how I saw “the Crew”.
Anyway, the point of all this is: I made a group of fantastic friends this past summer and I was so, so, so heartbroken to leave. I was unbelievably homesick my first month or so back at Wellesley, and believe it or not I considered transferring to Berkeley. Really. It was rough. I just wanted to be back home with my climbing friends. (Luckily, I survived the semester and met Katie and discovered MetroRock so all is good.)
But I remember part of why I was so sad to leave was because of fear. Fear that I would never be able to relive this summer. Fear that I would come home and we wouldn’t have the same dynamic anymore. Fear that I would never come back to the same group of people because some of them might move away. Fear that I would no longer be a part of their lives and they would no longer be a part of mine. Fear of loss. Fear of absence. Fear of no longer having what I had come to treasure as an intrinsic part of my life, my climbing friends.
Especially since we’d made so many good memories climbing together at Indian Rock all summer and in Tahoe (at a place called Lover’s Leap) and I wanted to continue to make good memories with these people and climb together for years to come. So I was very, very afraid, because of just how much I felt I had to lose.
I’m not sure if I’ve conveyed this well at all. My fears I mean. Or my reasons for them. I guess the reason I felt I had so much to lose was because I’d sort of met kindred spirits this summer. I’d met a group of guys who’d become brothers to me. And mentors. And family.
…But–and this is the crux of my story–when I drove up on Tuesday, guess what?? Kelly greeted me at the top of the steps of the pit! And then John dropped by! And later Rob!!! I knew it was him because he was all decked out in biker gear and had his helmet on. (He has a motorcycle.) And then finally Chris came too!! He’d gotten a motorcycle during the time I was gone, and he was decked out in biker gear too!! Ari was out of town, and Joe was in Joshua Tree, but I saw most of the Crew!! And I was SO happy! Not only because I got to see them and they still remembered me and still welcomed me and were glad to see me too but because our dynamic hadn’t changed at all. 🙂 🙂 🙂 They are still the same goofy guys and we still talk about the same old things.
It felt like nothing had changed except I’d gone to a very far away place and come back, and we resumed right where we left off.
It was great. (:
I can’t even convey the feeling of relief I felt after that night. It was just, simply put, a feeling that all was still well and good. Like everything was still in place. Like I’d gone to a faraway place and feared things would shift and change while I was gone and had come back home scared, only to find that all was still well.
And on that very, very happy note, I’d like to introduce you to the “Crew”. (: The Crew plus Kelly. Oh and another friend Rafael! I didn’t talk about him but we hung out this summer too. (: I didn’t get to see him on Tuesday though.
~~~
And another quick note before the photos: this is an eclectic group of individuals and that’s part of why I love them so much. Half of the guys have or had long hair. Half have beards. They’re all anywhere from 5 to 20 years older than me. (Except Rafael who’s my age.) And they may not be the typical kind of people who come to mind when you think of a 19 year old girl’s friends, but they mean a lot to me and I wouldn’t trade them for the world, or for any “more typical” friends. So with no further ado:
Here’s Joe:
Here’s Chris:
-This was at my goodbye bbq which the guys were kind enough to put together for me (:
Here’s Rob:
Here’s Ari:
-He’s the one sitting on the storage box
-This was when we went climbing at Lover’s Leap in Tahoe! We had the best campsite. (:
Here’s John:
Here’s Kelly (he’s mega taller than me–see third photo):
Here’s Rafael:
-The photo on the right was when we went climbing at Cliff House!
And here are some general photos of Indian Rock (:
-The one on the left was my first day ever at IR. You can see Rick in both of these; he’s the highest one on the left and he’s in the green on the right. See what I mean about climbers and long hair?
And…nothing beats an Indian Rock sunset:
Ari and Chris:
Aaaand on that happy note, I’ll sign off. (: Writing this post brought back a lot of memories and made me very happy. I’m literally still smiling right now. Also, Merry Christmas! I know I usually post on Fridays but I felt like writing this today so here it is. It was a great trip down memory lane.
Until next week!
~Emily