“Are you ready for this?”
I looked back at Brian, my friend and long-time mentor, who sat across from me at the lunch table as his question sank in. I was still in awe that he had dropped everything in his life to fly cross-country to watch me speak at a small little gym in our small little town of Boise.
I knew him well. Our paths first crossed in 2008, and over the years would separate and come back together intermittently. He was the last person I expected to run into again in 2022 at a meet-and-greet in Boise I was invited to via a generic email blast to a listserv I didn’t remember ever being placed on.
But I showed up and so did he.
From there our relationship was rekindled. But I was struggling at that time and doing everything within my power to hide it from those close to me. I lied to him. I let responsibilities slip and failed to show up like I should have.
Yet here Brian sat, four years later, after his nearly 2,500-mile venture from Virginia to Idaho that day. I knew his question was about so much more than the book event later that night. It was so much more than simply becoming a published author. It was a question I would have answered quickly in the past in a manner I hoped would please the person asking. But this time, at this lunch with this friend, I thought on the question, aiming simply to answer it honestly.
Half a day later at the book event, I looked around the room and realized how lucky I was to have Brian and one other friend, Zach, who had traveled different parts of the journey with me over the years.
Both had shown their support for the book by writing back cover blurbs, but most importantly, both had shown up in our lives when the burdens of life felt heaviest. I felt compelled to get their take on friendship, struggle, support and how Chasing Control had impacted them. Both of them had been so close, yet held at such a distance by me during the difficult parts of the journey that the book recounts.
Taking our seats before hitting record, I shot them both a glance and a smile and asked, “Are you ready?”
Brian laughed and shook his head as the blinking red “Recording” button started up.
