Our faithful blog readers may not be able to tell, but Sarah and I have become quite the duo. I wasn’t sure what to expect at the beginning of the summer before I met Sarah at the porch. Would we even get along? I knew that Sarah was from Mississippi and goes to Ole Miss. During our first meeting on Zoom, she revealed her absolute favorite color was pink and I heard her southern drawl for the first time. Now, I have had friends from very different walks of life before. My ability to mesh with others is fairly normal, but we seemed like opposites. Even the hobbies we have in common don’t exactly line up, like our love for reading. Sarah is an avid reader of contemporary romance novels, while I tend to read older classics. Quickly, I realized that these differences wouldn’t keep us from becoming immediate friends.
Somehow, we just clicked the moment we met on the porch. I was going on runs with one of the staffers, Rebecca, earlier this week. She noted that she assumed Sarah and I had known each other outside of this summer when she first noticed us at training. On the first day at the porch, we couldn’t stop chatting and stumbling on random interests we shared. By the end of the first day, we discovered our former obsessions with a group of internet personalities that toured the country together while we were in middle school and began sharing our life stories thus far.
Our bond just goes to show that most people who are willing to give up their summer for a cause they both care about will probably get along. Even if her and I have much different hopes for what we will get out of this summer, our common goal to spend our summer helping to better ASP’s service area through our own personal skills keeps us united. We may have different objectives, but staying friends along the way has helped each of us accomplish what we hoped to. Sarah is always willing to talk out a blog post idea or operate the camera as I sit down with a homeowner who I sparked up a conversation with. If I were out on the road on my own, I am not sure if I could do what I have done this summer.
Sometimes, Sarah and I talk about how different our experience is from the other staffers. Every few days, we are moving our things to the next county and never really get the chance to sink our teeth into a place. It’s hard to make deeper connections with volunteers, staffers, or community members. By the end of the conversation, we both can agree that we couldn’t do it without the other. I wouldn’t have it any other way. The experience that we are sharing is so unique. I have loved traveling to every county, eating at the local spots, and learning about local history. Even better, I get to do all this with Sarah. I can’t imagine taking in this experience without her by my side to talk through it every step of the way.
Now, Sarah has me hooked on romance audiobooks for our long drives and I send her copies of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre that I think she would like to add to her extensive book collection. I think I have also sold her on the West Virginia hot dog that I introduced her to while in Logan County. Sarah has most certainly sold me on loaded teas, a caffeinated beverage that I had never heard of prior to meeting her and has kept me going throughout this summer. We have shared in this journey but brought our own flair along the way to share with one another. I expected a lot out of my summer with ASP, but building this friendship came as a surprise. I’m happy to join the club of those who have spent their summer with ASP and walked away with a lifelong friendship.
Taylor Beam
Story Gathering Intern
