"Fare Thee Well, My Honey, Fare Thee Well" My first year of saying goodbye to those leaving for college

Me sitting on the trunk of Mike Nuccio's Mustang that faithful Sunday, as we celebrate our final days together...for now (Photo credit: Mike Nuccio).

The weeks of August 8th and August 15th have beared a whirlwind of emotion for me, as I find myself saying my first round of goodbyes to my close friends, who are heading off to faraway places to attend college. While I have some friends going in our homestate of Illinois and living there, I have a great deal of other friends who are leaving the state for places like Massachusetts, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and so forth, going to places far more ambitious than my small private school fifteen minutes away from home, and doing far more commendable things in school, like accounting, biology, and engineering rather than English and interactive media studies. This week has been dedicated to seeing those people for one final time for a few months, and this blog goes out to the ones I've hung out with over these last few days and those I wasn't fortunate enough to see.

My first big "hangout" was far more serious than the others because it was the first time I was gathering with my small-group of friends, Miles, Elijah, and Jakub, to begin shooting my key scenes for Miles' directorial debut I'm Tired of God, which is due for a release online in 2015. The film is an uncommonly ambitious piece of work from the smartest writer and thinker I know in person. We began shooting my scenes on Monday, August 11th and are looking to wrap up sometime later this month. The entire shoot went extremely well, with me discovering more and more things about Miles through his careful, meticulous directorial styles and his camera techniques that always left me in awe. Above I have the first publicly-released still from the film; do it justice and click on it to see the still in full quality.

More information on I'm Tired of God can be found in my blog post concerning the film, http://stevepulaski.blogspot.com/2014/07/im-tired-of-god-information-on-new-film.html

My next hangout was with two loyal friends and supporters by the name of Brendan and Sam (whom I have nicknamed "Slurge" for reasons that need a blog for themselves). Sam has been one of my closest friends since the eighth grade, always being the person I can lean on for a thoughtful conversation and someone I can trust with my world. If I had to give my life to anyone and know they'd keep it safe and sound, it'd be Sam. Whenever I need honest, unfiltered advice, he's the guy to talk to. Little did I know when I was twelve-years-old that if I trusted him, I'd have a friend for life and a loyal person on my side. I'm proud to say he has been by my side almost every day of high school and him and I stuck close, despite having no classes together and having very different priorities.

My other friend Brendan is a more recent friend, wickedly intelligent, insightful, and observant, just the way I like 'em. His insightful commentary on film, politics, music, and the world around him never fails, and his quietly observant attitude always makes for stimulating talking points. I have spent my last few Tuesdays hanging out with both of them, listlessly driving around town (thanks to Brendan and his trusty Toyota Prius), frequenting fast-food places, tobacco shops, movie/book stores, and more, and even just hanging out in my room, shooting the shit, and doing what guys do best - nothing at all. These are the days we cherish as teens and recall fondly when we are adults. One must live them up.

Then there was the colossal hangout I had a week ago with my buddies (pictured above), where we went and saw the brand new comedy Let's Be Cops. While all of us were excited to see it, we were even more anxious about heading back to my house, where we engaged in one final roundtable session of directionless, relatively meaningless conversation about life, friends, and the people we love. It was simple and effective. Three of the seven guys I went with that day, Jack, Sam, and Jared, are three I've attended several films with this past summer, and the fact that I won't be able to do that again until perhaps fall break is a crushing fact. Because of that, I knew I had to make this last, which is precisely what I did.

Then there's Mike Nuccio, my longtime close friend, partner-in-crime, shoulder-to-cry-on, wingman, and video-partner for almost seven years now, since the drudgery of middle school and the glory of high school. Little can be said here that we didn't say in person or has been said before in other blogs, but after hugging for the first time ever on the morning of Sunday, August 17, 2014, just a few hours before he'd leave for Northern Illinois University is when I truly saw the unbelievable value and incredible capability of our relationship together. We've withstood several obstacles, given the fact that despite living five minutes away from each other, due to quirky boundary-lines, went to separate high schools, lasted during other relationships, and still managed to hang out from as early as 10am to as late as 2am some days.

After experiencing some personal problems within the first couple weeks of August, Mike came over to my house for about fourteen hours on Sunday, August 10, 2014. During the early hours of the evening, we hung out in front of my house, with music blaring out of Mike's 2005 Mustang, playing football in the street. "Once again, the summer ends with just us," he said. I had to take a pause - this was very true. Despite whatever relationships we had, priorities we had, or plans we tried to carry out, the summers always ended with us in my driveway, voicing our nerves about school and the future. Despite the massive amount of changes that happened this year for him and myself, none of that changed; we haven't outgrew each other yet.

After one final hangout when I got off of work around 11pm August 16, 2014, I said my temporary goodbye to Mike and went to bed. The following day, while working, I kept receiving messages from him, as he moved into NIU's dormroom and was keeping me in the loop. I continue to talk to him largely through text and Skype and plan to. The next time I'll likely see him is over Labor Day weekend, and after that, fall break in later November. It's a "see you later," but it's a "see you later" I really didn't want to say.

Now I'm here, alone at my computer desk, typing this out, not finding myself attached in one particular direction, waiting for college to start on September 15, 2014 so I too can begin this "life journey" that involved "self-discovery" that everyone older than me raves about. Bring it on, I guess...