Ok, here’s the thing. In the end, this is not really that big of a deal, but I can’t help to feel a slight disappointment. But, I can’t really complain too much, because it is partly my bad. One of my groomsmen, Eric, is getting married next May. Yay! He is actually the friend I have known the longest since my family moved to the US when I was in 3rd grade. I met my best man, Frank, a couple days later… but we didn’t start hanging out with Frank until around middle school. So it is fair to say that Eric and I are each other’s longest running friendship. I was sitting two feet away when he had his first kiss. I was the one who gave him advice on how to break up with his first girlfriend in 6th grade… which was horrible advice, and we laugh about it to this day. He came to my football games, and I went to his academic league matches, and roller hockey games. We watched Jeopardy every day and he would get all the answers right. I was present when his voice cracked for the first time. I was there when he got in his one and only fist fight in 5th grade. We went ice-skating every Friday to go meet girls in middle school. We stayed up all night playing Mario Kart and NHL hockey on the Super Nintendo countless times. Once high school hit is when we separated a bit, but we still had that deep friendship. So why was he not my best man? Because you only get to have one, and because we decided to do a dang radio bit to decide who my groomsmen were going to be. To be completely honest with you, if there was no radio bit, I would have had a hard time picking between Frank and Eric. Eric, actually did not make it very far in our lil radio competition, which was a lil shocking. He was “eliminated” by the cast during the best man speech contest.
The best man speech. That is the one thing I have been looking forward to. I am in radio, I am used to talking in public, I have been practicing by telling stories of our childhood since we were in middle school… basically, I have trained myself for this moment. Unfortunately, I was not picked as best man. haha. Eric actually was pretty smart. He picked two best men… and I still did not receive that honor. It was given to his buddy from college, and to Frank. I don’t know his buddy from college very well, so it’s natural to have a bit of a “really?” attitude, but the fact is that he has known Eric for most of his adult life. I am sure Eric felt the same way when he was going up against Bad Influence Paul and Reggie. I don’t blame him. I don’t even have the right to be mad. Frank and Eric have kept in touch much more often in the last few years, so I can’t get mad at that either. What I was thinking, since Frank admitted he fails at speeches, is be the one to deliver Frank’s speech. He helped me write a song and perform it at my wedding. So I can help him write his speech… and if he gets nervous again, I can deliver it for him. Everyone wins. Except me, because I definitely hurt my buddies feelings by having a dang competition to crown my best man, when I could have had co-best men like he did.