Meet Joe.
Joe is a tall, lanky dude.
Joe wears graphic T-shirts with depictions that don’t make sense.
Joe’s pin-straight blonde sweeps just over his eyeballs.
Joe’s sharp facial features are softened by clear round spectacles that aren’t worn to be in style.
Joe wears them because he likes them.
Joe sings in the shower with a door closed haphazardly.
Joe maintains old-school idioms like yelling jinx when you say a word at the same time.
Though, Joe never yells.
Joe is calm and cool.
Joe asks a colleague to randomly pierce his ear using a lighter and a safety pin in the middle of the woods because Joe feels like it.
Joe’s humor could break the ice in the Arctic Circle.
Joe is a subtly brilliant English major at U of M.
Joe quits his job as a busboy an hour before his shift to “exercise his free will.”
Joe and my friendship begins with shared music…or was it Calvin and Hobbes?
Over time, I got to know Joe.
Joe brightens my day every time I see Joe.
I once learned in a creative writing class (ENGLISH 223 with Lillian Li) that we can best describe someone we know in the second degree, meaning someone who you see regularly without a profound emotional relationship attached to them.
First degree: YOUR sibling, significant other, parent, best friend.
Second degree: the sibling, significant other, parent, best friend OF YOUR sibling, significant other, parent, best friend.
I know Joe to the second degree. I am inspired by Joe and how he is unapologetically himself. This entry expresses the character of Joe, using a tone that is honest and carefree just like Joe himself. I am grateful to know Joe and to have Joe as my friend. Whether you’re a freshman or a graduate student, keep your heart open to making new friends. Ann Arbor is filled with remarkable people.
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