Yesterday, you could feel winter yawn here in NYC. The unforgiveable, crushing cold grew weary of itself and took a rest. The grateful city laid out under several hours of sunshine, soaking in and reawakening memories we had all forgotten of spring days and all their promise.

We still feel better, even with the forecast of rain today.

I wandered over to the Upper West Side to have coffee and catch up with Megan, my Junior year apartment roommate. She knew me after The Tequila days and through The Great Drew Disaster. She tolerated my clutter and the preliminary stages of my thesis research.

Megan has since been my reality litmus test. She was one of the only people brave enough and real enough to tell me me when I was kidding myself or way off base.

Megan is not a buyer of bullshit, no matter how thoroughly I had sold it to myself, no matter how pretty I wrapped it. She feels no obligation or responsibility to tell you how great you are unless you’re being great, which makes it so much more profound when she gives her stamp of approval. It’s not something distributed lightly.

And she taught me that it’s ok for my real reasons to be my real reasons, no excuses, no explanation required. No prettily-wrapped bullshit.

I knew that if my new seeming accomplishments were superficial, Megan would tell me. She provides perspective, very acute and grounded perspective. That’s why I love her.

I told her about James and work and my education and the move and all the bells and whistles. I waited for her to give a little laugh and raise an eyebrow, hearken me back to reality and sober me up a bit. Is it possible to really finally be this balanced and happy?

Yes.

We concluded, Yes. She’s a spitfire, full of passion and ambition and wholehearted good intentions and love for humans in general. She’s also grounded, and I really respect and admire her for achieving and maintaing such a delicate balance.

She told me about her life and her work and the moves she’s trying to make in her life. She told me about how music has opened up the world for her, and invited me to the New Orleans Jazz Festival this coming April.

We talked about how great it is to finally see all our hard work start to translate into a position in life where we find ourselves able to look at the challenges before us and still excitedly whisper to ourselves under our breath, “Regardless… This is possible. I can DO this.”

The city reclined back and took a day off from grumping through winter, and I had coffee with an old friend who once again stirred my soul awake. We laughed and chatted through the sunshine…

… And I find myself, even the cold morning after, once again reminded that even in the dead of winter you can find yourself a patch of spring if you’re fortunate enough to have friends with hearts as warm as the ones I find in mine.

-M.