Replying to Strictly Premier Night in Boulder

Okay so this is gonna be a story and if you dont like reading sorry

I'm a freshman at CSU and when I saw Dan was going on the BYOBeanie tour through Boulder I knew I had to make it out. Being a carless college student in Fort Collins, I had convince my friend Blakeley who is also stoked on skiing to drive out with me to check it out. She seemed pretty interested in the whole ordeal. I told her while we were in town we had to check out the Strictly premier night. I have been waiting on Most Gutter for some time. Ive been watching Barrett and Zahner and Flanagan teasing street shit for what feels like forever. I was so excited I was gonna finally get to get out and get stoked on skiing. While as we were preparing to leave Blakeley informs me she has a shift she totally forgot about and we were going to be able to leave town until 6. I knew this meant I had to miss the BYOBeanie event but I made sure to focus on the positive. I was still gonna get to check out Most Gutter on premier night. As I was leaving in a rush I grabbed all the essentials (phone, card, ID) and hit the road. Blakeley and I had somehow managed to convince several of our non skiing friends to come with us to Boulder so we were a crew now.

By the time we got there, parked, and bought our tickets the line was already impressive. It was then that i realized to get into the Fox theatre, we would need to provide proof of vax. Our crew were all fully vax'd so no issues there. Except for Blakeley and I as we both realized we were without our covid cards. Apparently didnt register to me as an essential. Nonetheless we waited in the long line and showed the crew at the door that according to our school we were both fully vaccinated. That of course didnt fly. So here we were with all of our clueless non skier friends inside the venue and the two die hards stuck outside with 60 bucks worth of unusable tickets because we forgot our covid cards. We both reluctantly and emotionally accepted our fate and told our friends to call us when they were done. I stood outside the door trying to get people to take our tickets for free but for some reason we were treated like aliens. Don't be too nice these days I guess. We decided to walk around Boulder and just see what happened.

Walking with our heads down I was somewhat startled when someone complimented the Arsenic crewneck I was wearing. Looking up at the passing figures my eyes were drawn to a tall arsenic T and a Gatorade towel. I of course turned around and tried to control my enthusiasm as I approached him. I believe everything happens for a reason and sure enough I ended up meeting Dan and shaking his hand just like I had set out to do in the first place. As cheesy as it sounds talking to him helped me remember/realize that it didn't matter where I was, I was still with the right person. I could watch Most Gutter when it got released later. See life is what you make of it. We can sit around feeling sorry for ourselves or we can realize that our story is told by the choices we make and how we handle adversity.

Blakeley and I ended up watching a high school football game, cheering for a team of which neither of us had ever heard of (they lost :( ) and walking around Boulder together and just enjoying the great friendship we had built. Because we were literally anywhere with the right people funny enough. It was honestly the most fun I've had since moving out here. Ive been so focused on school and work and priorities that I lost touch with the right people. Not tonight tho.

We ended up meeting back up with our friends who of course had no idea what they had seen or what it meant but they enjoyed themselves and thats what matters. They had brought me a poster signed by the athletes and I was overwhelmingly grateful. Upon opening the poster, however, I felt both pissed and laughed out loud as I read signatures such as "get the vaccine its not scary" "you blew it" and my favorite "hope you get covid". I threw the poster out.

So when it comes down to it, happiness doesnt come from meeting Dan, or seeing a ski movie, or getting a poster, or any of that. Happiness comes from who you surround yourself with. The people that make the day in, day out struggle worth it. The people that make you laugh and smile and be yourself. The people that make a house feel like home. The people that aren't just apart of your life but define it. The people who turn a shitty night of failure into cheering at a football game and laughing until it hurts. Anyways thats all I have for tonight. Just a reminder to myself and the whole community to cherish the simple things and cherish the people that our lives and journeys what they are.

Love and Peace at 1:30 on a school night,
Jack