Garreth
June 18th 2007 17:56
This is a really long true story about searching for a long lost friend. I know many people don't experience this in their whole lifetimes so I will go into as much detail as possible.
When I was at school a memo went around to say that Duke of Edinburghs award was being started in the school and they needed participants. For those who dont know, duke of edinburghs award is a program for young people. There is a vast amount of information on the net so I won't explain it all here.
Anywho, I decided it would be a great way to get out of lessons and so I went along to the first meeting. I wasn't planning on joining properly at first as I knew that it would involve exercise and hard work which I ain't a fan of. But I found that most of the activities appealed to me so I decided to give it a few more classes, you know, see how it went.
Soon enough my friends Gemma, Zoe and Kathy and myself were hooked. We got stuck into the task of organising our first ever expedition.
We had to organise a route that covered a set amount of miles over two days with one night camping.
Bear in mind that there were no adults on the walks (except for a supervisor that stayed hidden from view in a vehicle) so we needed to ensure that the route was as safe as possible. So we organised a few extra sessions after school
On the first afternoon session a boy, maybe a few months older, came along with our adult supervisor to help out. I later found out that his name was Garreth and we soon became friends.
After a few months on the award I began visiting evening sessions at the local group. It was a good way to do some extra activities towards the award and to make new friends but I found that I spent most of my time with Garreth. We spent hours with me sat on his lap listening to Westlife on my personal stereo and singing along. Which will always be one of my fondest memories. Don't you all worry though. I was 15 at the time and soon found real music.
As the months passed Garreth and I got very close as friends until we were spending a lot of time together. Then on my 16th birthday we organised to meet up and spend the evening together. Garreth never showed up.
Since then I have spent as much spare time as I had trying to find Garreth. Its been a long hard slog and I have spent hours calling numbers, searching online and offline for any details and chasing up any lead that I can find. Then today I decided to walk down his old street handing out leaflets asking for help and posting them through doors. I soon found from people that I spoke to that Garreths mum still lived on the street.
After two hours I came home and began the waiting game for calls. Then to my surprise my phone rang at 4PM. It was Garreth's mum who gave me his number and told me that he is now living back nearby after moving around for a few years. An hour later Garreth called me himself.
It was so nice to finally find him and speak to him after all these years.
The moral of this story is to never give up and never say never. No matter how hard something seems or how impossible you may think it is keep pushing and you never know what may happen.
When I was at school a memo went around to say that Duke of Edinburghs award was being started in the school and they needed participants. For those who dont know, duke of edinburghs award is a program for young people. There is a vast amount of information on the net so I won't explain it all here.
Anywho, I decided it would be a great way to get out of lessons and so I went along to the first meeting. I wasn't planning on joining properly at first as I knew that it would involve exercise and hard work which I ain't a fan of. But I found that most of the activities appealed to me so I decided to give it a few more classes, you know, see how it went.
Soon enough my friends Gemma, Zoe and Kathy and myself were hooked. We got stuck into the task of organising our first ever expedition.
We had to organise a route that covered a set amount of miles over two days with one night camping.
Bear in mind that there were no adults on the walks (except for a supervisor that stayed hidden from view in a vehicle) so we needed to ensure that the route was as safe as possible. So we organised a few extra sessions after school
On the first afternoon session a boy, maybe a few months older, came along with our adult supervisor to help out. I later found out that his name was Garreth and we soon became friends.
After a few months on the award I began visiting evening sessions at the local group. It was a good way to do some extra activities towards the award and to make new friends but I found that I spent most of my time with Garreth. We spent hours with me sat on his lap listening to Westlife on my personal stereo and singing along. Which will always be one of my fondest memories. Don't you all worry though. I was 15 at the time and soon found real music.
As the months passed Garreth and I got very close as friends until we were spending a lot of time together. Then on my 16th birthday we organised to meet up and spend the evening together. Garreth never showed up.
Since then I have spent as much spare time as I had trying to find Garreth. Its been a long hard slog and I have spent hours calling numbers, searching online and offline for any details and chasing up any lead that I can find. Then today I decided to walk down his old street handing out leaflets asking for help and posting them through doors. I soon found from people that I spoke to that Garreths mum still lived on the street.
After two hours I came home and began the waiting game for calls. Then to my surprise my phone rang at 4PM. It was Garreth's mum who gave me his number and told me that he is now living back nearby after moving around for a few years. An hour later Garreth called me himself.
It was so nice to finally find him and speak to him after all these years.
The moral of this story is to never give up and never say never. No matter how hard something seems or how impossible you may think it is keep pushing and you never know what may happen.
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