We got this Pt. 7
However, I vividly recall our long conversations over Skype and Google Meet. Whether late in the evening, early in the morning, or right after school, our chats became almost daily occurrences. Despite the distance, with him in Thailand and our friendship confined to an 11 x 15 screen, Coleman quickly became one of my best friends.
It took over a year of chatting before we met in person. I was in Bellevue, Washington, for a middle school ultimate frisbee tournament, while he, coincidentally, was visiting his grandmother in Seattle. Dying to meet each other, we (somehow) managed to convince our parents to help orchestrate a meeting. The plan was simple: he would come visit me at the end of the tournament, and then we would spend the rest of the day together.
In hindsight, it all seems a little crazy meeting an internet “stranger” and his family, but at 13 - our eagerness to meet was undeniable and any inhibitions were thrown out the window. How could you say no?
My father loves telling this story. I distinctly remember seeing Coleman for the first time in person. We were mid-game. Being the smallest on the team, I didn’t get much playtime, so I spent majority of my time on the bench.
He drove up to the field - we were on opposite ends. The moment we saw each other, we both impulsively started running. As cliché as it sounds, it felt like a scene straight from a movie - the two of us hugging in the middle of a grassy field, embodying the essence of childhood innocence and naivety. So carefree and unbothered.
After persuading my coach to let me leave the game early, we (and our parental chaperones) found ourselves in the epitome of suburban America and modern capitalism: a strip mall. Settling on a couch at Starbucks, we did what yo-yo players do best: loiter. And then after finishing our hot chocolates, continued to loiter at a nearby Five Guys. I can still recall Coleman’s mother’s surprise when she saw me finish a burger larger than my face (and then unsurprisingly fall into a deep food coma afterward).
That day in a random spot in the middle of the Pacific Northwest, we filmed our first video aptly titled "We Got This," symbolically named after our support for each other. Every time we’ve met since - whether in Vancouver, Orlando, or Los Angeles, we filmed another instalment to our series, chronicling our adventures wherever life took us: documenting our journey from childhood to adulthood through yo-yo videos.
Whenever Coleman and I meet up, it’s as if no time has passed. Sometime it’s a couple of months, other times a couple of years. We pick up our conversations right where we left them. There’s an underlying sense of understanding, words left unspoken but intuitively understood.
We’ve always dreamed of going on a road trip together, but timing never lined up. Life got the better of us. We needed an excuse, but we could never find one.
So, when we were brainstorming a list of crazy things to do with Canopy, a road trip together almost immediately floated to the top. It was an opportunity to get feedback on our new designs, film a bunch of media, and (arguably most importantly), go on a trip together.
The trip struck the perfect balance of spontaneity and calculation. Given our history of turning crazy ideas into reality, we figured “why not give it a shot”. As crazy as it sounded, it might actually work.