When we were younger we were always outdoors. If you couldn't find us, chances were that we had wandered off into the woods somewhere. The time of day (or night) did not matter. We always escaped into the woods to see what animals or things crept along. Andy always talked me into doing the most adventurous things at random times, but it never took much to talk me into adventures. One memory that summarizes Andy and his personality is the time that we both were home from school to visit our families and he talked me into camping outside with only two sleeping bags, the hard ground, and a homemade fire. Like always, I agreed to go because we didn’t leave each other’s side unless we had to. It was the beginning of Summer, which meant that the mosquitoes were the size of birds and the weather was not exactly comfortable, being as though we do live in South Carolina. We took Oak, his Labrador retriever with us, and even he was not happy about not sleeping in his bed. But by 2 am, we moved back to the truck and I begged to get in the backseat so that I could at least get away from the mosquitoes that were trying to pick me up and carry me away. I had just drifted off to sleep and I heard beating on the truck window (I thought Andy was in danger, or there was a stranger beating on the window), I jumped out of my skin and opened the door and I said "What's wrong???", he looked at me and said, "Can I get in there too? I keep hearing weird noises and I cant stop scratching these mosquito bites." This was AFTER he picked on me for wanting to sleep in the truck. Needless to say, when morning light came, we both went to our homes and slept until the afternoon. Our parents said to us later, "I bet y'all won't do that again, will ya?" we said no, but Andy insisted that we did. So we did.
I am so thankful for what then seemed like such a small moment but has become such a big, meaningful memory.