Did we just become best friends?

Let's talk about the no-time-has-passed friendships.

Floor Time​​

/flôr tīm/
noun

1. the 15-60 minute time period spent laying on the floor in the middle of the work day, typically as a relief from the soul-sucking reality of corporate America. 

In 2015, I spent a semester abroad in Australia (hence my love for Tim Tams, flat whites, and brekkie). During those six months, I made some incredible friends—and fortunately, I’ve been able to keep in touch with them at a very regular cadence since we met eight years ago. In fact, I got to spend this week in balmy Florida with one of them—my orientation bestie, Rachel.

One of the most bittersweet lessons of adulthood is finding out that there are many different kinds of friendships—one being a friendship of proximity. Meaning, you’re friends with people because you inhabit the same space for a continuous amount of time, and once you leave that space, the connection may wane. And I’ve definitely had this happen before. But surprisingly, this has not been my experience with friends from exchange. I went to Rachel’s wedding last year, saw her for this impromptu Florida trip this past week, and in May, I have plans to meet my old roomie, Martine, for both our first times in Paris, and I get to stay with my pal, Freddie, when I have a layover in London.

Maybe I just got lucky with the group of people in my program. But I can’t help but think about how I found true kindred spirits, and how that can be possible even when cumulatively, you’ve only spent a fraction of time with these select people.¹

During my #SabbatiCLO last year (p.s. sequel coming May 2023!!!), I made London my home base for three weeks. I stayed with my sister, but spent a fair bit of time hanging with Freddie. When we grabbed after-work pints, we were talking about how we’ve probably spent a total of two weeks together over the course of our entire friendship (I met him when his a cappella group came to Berkeley for a weekend-long exchange with mine). And yet he is one of my closest friends and whenever we’re together it feels like no time has passed, because our personalities magically gel so well.

Perhaps this Floor Time is just a love letter to the friends I wish I saw more. Or maybe, it’s an open thanks to the universe for giving us these incredible opportunities to inhabit the same time and space with brilliant people—if only just for a blip. I hope that you’ve had the profound privilege to experience the same thing with the people in your life. May those blips grow into years-long, maybe even life-long, friendships.

Something Pretty

View from this week’s Floridian escape. I didn’t pack an underwater camera, but the highlight of the trip was spotting the biggest stingray I’ve ever seen during my midday snorkel—the ocean is the cooliest!!

Something To Laugh About

Enjoy this week’s gems:

• This. Words to live by!!

• This video is specifically for Elias Habeeb. Hello, Elias do you feel attacked.

• And here’s some niche humor for my fellow theatre gworlies. How do people think of this.

• Not to laugh about but had to share this because it made me want to cry.

Have a lovely weekend, ya’ll. April is nearly here and soon this relentlessly endless winter might soon end.

Til’ next time, best friends. Your friend,

Clarice

By the way…I’m reading this.

I have picked up and put down the sequel to The Atlas Six, The Atlas Paradox, at least thrice now. Evidently all it took to keep my interest was isolated beach time and now that I’m halfway through it I’m liking it! Not as easy to get into as the first book, but enough to keep me intrigued at the moment. Stay tuned for the official review.

1. Also if none of them feel this way it’d be supes awk, so if you’re any of the fronds mentioned in this Floor Time and HATE me, please just don’t tell me thanksss.