About 2 Weeks ago on Random Thoughts I gave a tribute of sorts to one of my best friends, Eulus, on his 23rd Birthday (Oct. 1st to be exact). In it I mentioned my boy Nile…. Me and this guy have BEEN THROUGH IT….

Sometime during the first week of school they added two kids to my third grade class….my boy Bryan P. (the same guy my mother ran into at the drug store earlier this year) and Nile….

We clicked from jump-street….he loved football and I loved football….he had two sisters and I had two sisters (although he was a middle child)….we were in the same reading group (a crucial barrier for friendships in elementary school)….before you knew it we were like the Dynamic Duo of Utoy Springs Elementary School….

From third grade onward we were in the same class….he got glasses in the 4th grade and then I got glasses in the fifth grade….we were often confused for brothers even though we really look nothing alike (as he went to great lengths to assert the older we got)….

As time went on we had some legendary disagreements/almost fist fights….but they never really lasted long….when I moved in the 8th grade he stayed around the corner from me, so we’d play baseball and football in his front yard and play tricks on his neighbors….

In high school we each did our own things and started to become the adults we have grown into….but we still remained cool….during our senior year my dad moved up to Washington, D.C…..it just so happened that Nile’s number one choice of colleges at the time was Howard University so his parents invited me to ride up with them and his little sister Patrice as they visited during Spring Break….we listened to Wu Tang Albums and Life After Death by Notoriious B.I.G. the entire trip up….we listened to the the same songs at the same time and quoted the lyrics (sanitized just barely for his parent’s sake)…..I toured Howard with them….it was great….

We graduated and I thought we would be parting ways….but then Nile shocked me by telling me that not only was he coming to Morehouse….we would also be living in the same dorm….that first year we had our biggest falling out (a story for another time)….but by the end of the year we were cool again and it’s been that way ever since….

Last year we took a monumental road trip to San Antonio….and he also came and visited me in Nashville at the end of Spring Semester….he graduated from Morehouse this year (he enjoyed it a year longer than I did….sometimes I wish I had stayed around last year) He’s the youngest of the original crew from high school….the 4 flats and a spare(we were down like four flat tires but there were five of us….Me, Nile, Maurice, Reggie, and Smallwood)….

Anyways happy birthday nigga!…. Also….I have a friend up here in Nashville who shares a birthday with Nile…. Happy Birthday Ja’Nera….J-Sweet (ha ha)….no Outback this year….sorry….but I can afford some Mickey D’s!