Make the Effort for Those You Respect

One of the greatest benefits of growing up and becoming an adult - - at least coming from where I came from with the family and the friends that I have - is that my friends are now friends with my parents. I think that that is like the coolest thing. When my brother and I went down to Florida to surprise my dad for his 75th birthday back in September during Hurricane Dorian, we had a friend that we grew up with - Joe - who saw on social media posts that we were in Florida. Joe lives in the same town as my parents and he reached out to me and said, "Dude, I want in." And so he came over with his wife and we partied down and we celebrated and made my dad feel awesome. My dad has always loved Joe. Everyone from Ludlow loves Joe. It's hard not to love Joe. He's a genuinely great guy and always has been.

So yesterday I get a text out of the blue from another friend who lives in Georgia and unfortunately I have not seen him in awhile. He actually was my brother's year and they were very good friends. So he was another one of my defacto big brothers. Anyways, Jimmy the Juiceless was in Vero Beach, Florida. I'm going to assume on work. He reached out to me even though he didn't have to. Jimmy could have went down there and did his thing and went back to his wife in Georgia. But instead he reached out and he was like, "Hey man, I need your parent's phone number. I'm in Vero and I want to give them a shout while I am in town."

You know, that is just the best. It doesn't get any better than that. Growing up and getting older can definitely suck at times, but then there's times where you're no longer the little punk 12 year old kid anymore, or the trouble making 16 year old that brought my son home and he smelled like beer. Instead, now you're an adult and now you're on a equal plane with your parents. And my friends are friends with my parents. I mean, that is like the coolest thing. As I said, Jimmy could have just went down and did his thing and left, but instead he went, he hung out, he made the effort and he wanted to go see my parents. I know my parents were blown away. I haven't spoken to my parents about it yet, but just knowing my parents and knowing how they feel about Jimmy, Jimmy was like another son. I know his call and visit meant the world to them.

All of the trials and challenges and hard times they had raising me, my brother and all our friends - are all worth it to them in times like these. And I love Joe and Jimmy and all our friends that make the effort to let my parents know that they appreciate them. The point is that Jimmy made the effort and that's awesome. And so the moral of the story is a lot of times it can be inconvenient and not the easiest thing to do, but you have to make that effort for the people that you love and respect. Make the effort to go hang out with people that matter to you and share memories with you. And how cool is it that that our friends can be friends with our parents? I just love that. And I love that Jimmy made that effort. So I want to say thank you to Jimmy. I know sometimes he reads my posts, so maybe the Juiceless will read this one. I hope he does because for 1 day in Jimmy's life, Jimmy actually had JUICE. I'll admit that here. Jimmy Roberts had JUICE for 1 day in Jan 2020. It's probably gone today, the Juice is gone. He's back to being Juiceless, but for that 1 day, he had the Juice.