Yesterday afternoon after playing frisbee golf with some first-years for a few hours in the most beautiful park I've ever seen, I got home and checked my cell phone to find a text message I'd received from a number I did not recognize. With my phone's caller ID feature, usually a name and not a number appears in the from line of the text message. However, this number was not in my SIM card's memory, but I recognized from the 870 area code, my messager was from Arkansas.
The message informed me that unidentified Arkansan would call me once s/he was finished eating. Now, I'm not one of those people who doesn't respond to unknown texts or calls. I have friends who won't answer if they don't recognize the number, but I'm too anal for that. I answer, and if I see that I've missed a call, I call back. You never know if the call might be an important one.
So that's what I did--texted back. I didn't inquire about the identity of the unknown texter, though, because, well, in the same way it's embarrassing to ask someone her name when you know she's told you more than once before, I feel the same way about not knowing phone numbers that have potentially been given to me numerous times previously. Therefore I responded to unidentified Arkansan texter that s/he should just call me when his/her meal was over. I'm much better at voice recognition anyway.
I was pleasantly surprised when a half hour later I received a call from now unidentified caller and answered to discover an old Arkansas acquaintance on the other end. (It was Jarred Kibbey for my once-Honors Collegian readers). He was in town for the Arkansas-Tennessee game, and he decided to give me a holler since he remembered I live in Knoxville now. I met up with him around 7 last night, pleasantly surprised to discover he had Phillip Worley and Brandon Walser in tow. We visited for a couple hours over at Caitlin's apartment, and it was nice to reminisce about the Conway years and discover what each of them are doing with their lives now. Kibbey's married and enrolled in an MA program in bioethics at Loyola-Chicago. Phillip's in law school at UVA, and Brandon's a second-year med student at UAMS in Little Rock. Looks like kids from the small-town South can really be somebodies.
The kicker to my story is this: While I knew all of those guys when we were at UCA, I wasn't necessarily friends with any of them. Acquaintances, yes. Bosom buddies, no. None are people I'd go out of my way to visit on a school break. But it's really nice to know that they'd make time for me when they were in my neck of the woods. I'd been missing Arkansas a bit for the past couple of weeks, so spending time with some familiar faces talking about familiar places was nice. Next time I'm in Virginia or Central Arkansas, I might have to give them a call.
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