The Power of relationships Eddie Amon

“The greatest relationship of my old life”, that would begin to describe it. Catherine was

my perfect match. The two of us were the best of friends. We had our highs, and we had our

lows. I could never forget her midnight black hair, the way her jaw curved, the way she talked.

We laughed together, we cried together, and we spent all of our time together. This is the story of

our friendship, love, heartbreak, and tragedy.

She was about 5 inches shorter than me, she had jet black hair, and deep brown eyes. She

loved to listen to music, and she had an amazing voice like silk. We would spend Fridays after

school sitting under the tree and I would listen to her sing along to Flyleaf or Fireflight. I first

met her in 6th grade at band camp, and we instantly became friends. I spent all of my time with

her. Before school, after school, on weekends, or at church, if you saw me I would be with

Catherine.

It was my last day of school, and I had the grades to skip all of my final exams for 8th

grade. I stayed after school and waited for her on the sidewalk like always, but today was

different. Today I would ask her to be my girlfriend. My palms were sweating with nervousness

of the impending situation. My throat was dry from the sweltering Mississippi sun. I saw her

walking down the sidewalk towards the tree, and my heart skipped a beat. This was it, the

moment I had been waiting for all day. I was going to ask her out on a date to the movies. Until

this point, there was no talk of being in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. I mustered up all of

my courage and finally asked her the question. She ecstatically screamed “YES!” From that

point forward, she was my most powerful relationship of my life. The sea of my soul was at

peace. All was calm, the sun was shining, and the waters were crisp and blue.

That summer, my friends and I went on a trip to Nashville, TN on a trip to a church

camp. We all had great bonding time at the lounge of the dormitory we were staying in. On day

three of the trip we were running back to our rooms in the pouring rain. As we were about to say

our goodbyes, I looked deeply into her beautiful brown eyes. I ran my fingers through her

soaking wet hair to push it back, and we shared our first kiss. We stood there in the rain for what

felt like hours as we were locked in a passionate embrace. Two days later on that trip, after the

daily message from the pastor and a lengthy lecture from Catherine about what defines the

difference between short shorts and booty shorts. I met with my youth minister, Wes, and I was

saved to Crist about ten minutes later.

Later that summer, band camp started and we started to meet all the upperclassmen who

were already in band. I met a senior named Meagan. We started to hang out more and more.

Slowly our bond began to drift away as Meagan chewed away at the chains that held us together.

After a couple weeks of the slow deterioration, the chains broke. Our relationship was broken,

and we broke up. About a month later, I started to blindly date this girl I had only known for two

or three months. The waters in the sea of my soul were thrown into huge waves, and the water

turned black. The sun went down, and I was lost at sea in the dark. She turned out to be totally

psychotic. I quickly broke up with her and went crawling back to Catherine. After much

apologizing and fixing of heartbreaks, we were back together. The waters in the sea of my soul

were improved after breaking up with Meagan, all was calm, the water was blue, and the sun was

up.

The biggest thing we were looking forward to was the trip to Disney World. Our band

was able to go to Disney World to perform in front of about 30,000 people on their busiest week

of year. My friends and I managed to get the bus seats at the back that face each other. Catherine

spent almost the whole 18 hour ride sleeping under my arm. All of my best friends and I also

were able to get a hotel room together. We strengthened bonds all week long and my life felt

drastically more improved. We spent all of our time on that trip together while we created great

memories. In the end, it became the greatest week of my life. I had never been closer to complete

happiness in my life, but of course nothing that perfect could last.

Then, the worst thing happened to our relationship. Garrett and I had just come home

from a double date at the movies with Catherine and Katie. My parents called us into the kitchen

and informed us about the fact that we would be moving. I was heartbroken. I could barely keep

from a total emotional meltdown during the days that I had left to cherish with my friends. When

I broke the terrible news to Catherine the next day, she was completely heartbroken. The

peaceful waters of the sea of my soul were disrupted. Waves formed, and my boat was

destroyed. I was now floating along, lost at sea. We spent most of our days the next week just

sitting together in complete silence. She would lean on my shoulder for the hour before school

started, completely in peace. Neither of us would say a word, but the occasional tear would roll

down one of our cheeks. I would spend my days after school lying on my bed, playing our

favorite music, and just staring at the ceiling. I would try to contain the massive rolling waves of

emotions that were battering my soul. I was absolutely destroyed on the inside when I had to tell

all of my individual friends about the move. The sea had gone from a peaceful place of respite to

a horrible nightmare of sadness and entropy.

The last two months of school were painful. I would count the days I had left until life as

I knew it would end. The sea of my soul was in turmoil. I was waiting for some courage to save

me from the waves. As if there was some kind of fictional coast guard to save me. My only

floatation device was my relationship with Catherine. The waves slowly started to eat away at

my soul, until there was nothing left but a hollow husk of someone whose heart had been taken.

Torn apart by the ever blackening waters of my soul, I was still waiting for that coast guard to

come. But it never did. There was no light to look for, the relationship that was once thought to

be indestructible was slowly coming to an end.

Then the last goodbye came. It was one of the most painful experiences of my life. It was

the going to be one of the last times I would see Catherine or Garrett. We hugged in an embrace

for about ten minutes, had one last kiss, and then the last goodbye. I had a tiny glimmer of hope

of seeing them again because of the fact that we had to come back for my car. That was also the

day that I realized that there would be no one to save me. Now that the floatation of my

relationship with Catherine was ripped away by the waves, I had no way to swim in the sea of

my soul. I was lost. On the drive to Michigan, I finally gave up. I drowned in the sea of my soul.

While we were looking for a house in Michigan, we stayed at my grandparents. I

was a husk. There were no emotions. All of my emotions had died when I drowned. I no longer

had Catherine. My days were filled with darkness and despair. I could feel nothing but the pain

of loss of the one I loved. The enormity of our relationship was obvious when it was gone. I was

sad of little other things about my old life. The relationship with Catherine was almost all that I

cared for. I was emotionally dead. There was no life in my heart, even though it was beating. The

sea of my soul had dried up, and I was laying there on the dry bed of my soul. There was

nothing. I was nothing. The time I spent texting and calling Catherine didn’t help at all. The

relationship was broken. It was lighthearted and didn’t feel real.

My car was left in Mississippi with my mechanic. We didn’t have a way to bring it to

Michigan. So we took a road trip to Mississippi to get it at the beginning of football season for

them. The entire ride to Mississippi I could feel the sea of my soul refilling. I was slowly being

revived, but this time I had a boat and was ready for the sea. The first person I went to when we

got there was Garrett. It was very late and I wasn’t able to do anything, but I was going to keep it

a secret from Catherine anyways. The next day, band practice started after school, I was waiting

for Catherine. She walked through the door, and the first person she saw was me. I could see a

faint sign of confusion, then excitement. She ran across the room to give me a huge “welcome

home” hug. I could feel the relationship mending itself instantly. As I spent all of the week

reconnecting and telling my friends about my new life, I could feel the sea calming and the boat

repairing. I felt amazing, like all the relationships I had were being reformed and my life was

coming back. All of my problems were melting away. The sun came up to a new dawn in the sea

of my soul. All was well. That feeling of euphoria was quickly ripped away at the end of the

week. The dawn turned to dusk.

The relationships were just mended then ripped away. I had 17 hours to meditate the

change on the way back to Michigan. The waters in the sea quickly flew into turmoil. The boat

was bashed and battered until it broke. I was dying on the inside for a second time, but this time I

didn’t have the relationship with Catherine to keep me afloat. Before I even made it all the way

back to Michigan, I drowned again.

This time the feeling of emptiness was absolute. It was much worse because I knew that I

would never see them again. I was a broken man. I was flung into an endless depression. My

body was floating under the waters in the sea. I was lost. I had few friends to help me through it

because I moved in the summer.

When school started, it was pretty slow. I gained some friends. As the months started to

pass, I developed a group of friends. I was revived. The sea had spit me out and gave me breath.

I was given another chance by the relationships. I started to develop more and more. Life had

been given meaning, and I was alive again. I developed relationships, they were soon destroyed,

and then I developed even newer relationships. I even developed a relationship almost as strong

as the one with Catherine.

Through these experiences I have been granted gift of knowing the true power of

something that a normal person might consider trivial, but I know that they are everything.

Relationships are the deciding factor of how you act, feel, think, and exist. Relationships are you.

They make you individual. No one has the same relationships as you. They are a gift to

individuality. They are power and weakness. They can take you down paths in your life, whether

they are right or wrong. They can make a person mentally strong or, like me, destroy your heart.

Relationships come and go like dust in the wind. Relationships are life.