4:37

I am not the most sociable person. I tend to stay to myself and can find plenty of enjoyment holed up in my own room. I am relatively shy, especially as the group of people grows in numbers. I struggle planning events or outings or dates. It is hard for me to ask a person to do something. It is even harder for me to invite myself to an event or even another person’s house. You will rarely find me calling on your doorstep. You’d be lucky for me to call on the phone.

Last summer I was struggling and was missing the two people I could talk to about things in my life. I tweeted something about it and was invited to coffee by a guy I had only met a few weeks before. We sat down to coffee and I didn’t shut up. I couldn’t. Days after, this new friend was tweeting with another person I had only met a couple of times. They were planning a coffee date. Out of place, I joined into the conversation and invited myself. We planned to meet June 9, 2010 at 4:37 P.M.

This time soon became everything for me.

The late afternoon at the coffee shop changed my summer and changed my life. There were five of us their that day: Alec, Chris, Sarah, Sarah, and me. As our time was ending, they invited me to grill brauts with them. I agreed and soon had some new, close friends. We had a bon fire that night and the next two nights stayed at Alec’s and Chris’s house the next two nights as we built a bar in their basement. That bar was affectionately named “The 437″.

We began to call ourselves the 437 crew after we tweeted encouragement to my best friend. He thanked us all under that hashtag. The next month we hung out daily. We cooked for each other, drank together, and enjoyed World Cup Association Football. It was a great summer. It was a summer I needed since I was finishing my tenure at school and losing another relationship.

One year ago today, and the time this post is published, I found a great group of friends. This group is already quickly spread out over the midwest and will likely continue to grow apart by location. Whether we stay close is yet to be seen. What I know is I will never forget the summer. I will never forget the inclusion in a tight group like that. It was an honor to be asked to go to Colorado. It was great to spend five days with three close friends walking the streets (street…) of Denver.

This post is a dedication to the 437, the 437 crew, to homemade bars, to manberry 7′s, to Guinness floats, to strobe lights, to rings of fire, to high fives from future seminary students, to dueling pianos, to coffee, to the World Cup, to new friends, to Alec, to Chris, to Sarah, to Sarindra. Thank you for including me. Thank you for a great summer. Thank you for the memories.

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