The Truth About Matt Zimmerman

(Inside jokes will be bolded for your convenience)

They've shipped us, they've gossiped about us, they've pretended to know all about us, individually and together. But they've never gotten the truth, the full truth.

Okay. Here it is.

I met Matthew last year, as one of my first three friends at Colonial Forge. I knew immediately he was a cool kid, I just didn't know the extent of his coolness yet. Several (okay, a couple) people would keep telling me,

"You should, like, date Matt- you guys would be, like, good together." 

Of course I wasn't about to go for that, not at such a rough point in my story. But for the first awful year in Stafford, he stayed a loyal friend. He shared my love of cool words (high five for vocab), we thought the same weird people should randomly date (can we ship that?), and most of all, he was the only person I saw on a regular basis who fully appreciated who I was really trying to be.

So then, in late April, as many know, I finally gave in and realized I was unlikely to find anybody else like that. So we dated. (crossed eyes, apple juice, chocolate chip cookies, Pacific, can we ship our own relationship?)

And duh, it was pretty epic, if I do say so myself. People I'd never spoken to would come up and tell me they'd wanted us to get together since, like, forever. It was actually kind of cool.

But of course, towards the end of the summer, we broke up. What happened was....well, I don't need to put everything out there. I will say that we both knew we were going to have real priorities for senior year, and we promised to stay friends....great friends.

And I was skeptical about this. I hated the idea of seeing him no longer as my buddy, but as my... ex-boyfriend. Ugh. That's an awful term to assign to someone.

But to this day, I'm shocked and amazingly proud of how we handled it. We stayed friends, and became BETTER friends. Like, best-buds-for-life-friends. Um. Who. Does. That.

Oh, and did I mention that he became my official brother in Christ at Rockbridge, in one of the most dramatic answered prayers I've ever witnessed.

And it's never been awkward. (Well, not seriously.) He calls me after he goes on cute dates to bookstores with adorable girls, and I fangirl like they're my favorite TV couple and start planning my toast at their wedding. And whenever I text him screenshots of things cute boys have said to me, he immediately responds with: "Can he just ask you on a date already."

You think I'm kidding

And our conversations. Are. So. Darn. Funny. We have the weirdest sense of humor when we type. And when we get going on a metaphor, we can't stop using it.

Talking about "the show" went on for about four more screenshots

And though we've disagreed on many things, we don't really fight. Neither of us are confrontational, so when we ever get close to seriously disagreeing on something, one of us brings it up and we have a long talk about it, which inevitably ends with us realizing it was stupid. 

How he resolved our last disagreement and yes it worked

In all seriousness, I've never had a friend like him before. Oh, I've had people that I can tell anything to, and that understand what I'm thinking before I say it, and who I have a never-ending arsenal of inside jokes with, and who has a million little things that bug me but I overlook them because they pale in comparison to the awesome things.

But I've never had someone who takes care of me when I can't do it for myself. Who recognizes when I'm too cowardly or weak-willed or afraid to do something, but help me do it anyway because they know it's the best for me.

And the moment I realized I did, I started thanking God for a friend like him. 

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Dear Matt,

Thank you for never stopping being my friend. Thank you for always caring about what I think, and not being afraid to say when I'm being stupid. Thank you for continuing to look at me and geek when our most sacred ship is in a room together. Thanks for being the only one to notice when I wear eye makeup, and immediately knowing the reason why. Thank you for having more faith in me than I do in myself, and refusing to be realistic about your expectations for me. 

Don't ever make excuses for yourself. Don't ever change for someone. Don't ever comprimise. Don't ever.

You have no idea how extraordinary you are.

Love, the brown-eyed girl from a hotel hallway (Not in that awkward way though-you get what I mean.)

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So to everyone that's made assumptions:

-His one-act play is not about me. 

-He is totally, completely, without a doubt, STRAIGHT.

-We do not have a constant "thing" for each other.

-He's a best friend to me. So there.