nah.
i want to dedicate this post to someone who means a great deal to me. it's not oprah. but oprah was a part of our friendship that has spanned 23 years. katrina {or katinks as i call her} met in pat kirk's ballet class when we were 6 years old. we did some sunday school together, missed primary school, connected in high school, separated at varsity and are still close friends two decades later.
it sounds morbid, but i often wonder what people would say about me at my funeral, and i hope people don't leave the sincere compliments for when i'm dead. so katinks, i want to honour you right now with a memory that oprah's last show sparked, a memory that made me laugh out loud and cry at the same time.
me, in a black afro wig, in your mom's teal satin blouse and bracken high dri-mac slow mo running to paul simon singing the theme song for the 1996 season of oprah. ten years come and gone so fast i might as well be dreaming. we were tasked to produce a video for visual literacy and we chose oprah. {i think jacqui grant was also in our group?} maybe because i could fake an american accent. or because graham {my brother} did a great nelson mandela impersonation we could use in a "telephonic interview". but we did this absolutely crazy random shoot and ended up with a video that no one else found funny or entertaining. we thought it was pure oscar genius :) it's so rad how you were still friends with me in my worst moments. and being a white oprah was not the worst, believe me. i still hope that video has been destroyed by mold and moth.
that, was 15 years ago. and still, though we have not lived on the same continent for 2 years, i count you as one of my most precious gifts. things are different now, but not much has changed.
thanks for mtv music videos, teaching me how to smoke a cigarette, gladwrap slimming secrets, explaining me back to myself when i didn't make sense and life was even more nonsensical, for getting lost with me in greece, laughing at my lame jokes, spoems, hours and hours and hours of long conversations, introducing me to pashminas, always pointing me to the high road and encouraging me to be the bigger person, getting me employed at the bank {which was pivotal in leading me exactly where i am right now}, explaining the mi pack and an income statement to me {algebra in matric and nii in credit card} and for always being my number one cheerleader, advocate and voice of reason.
you are the most generous and selfless person i know. i have never known you to say a harsh word, neither to a person nor behind their back. you love so completely and without condition. you treat everyone with respect and dignity. you are fair and uphold justice and defend your values no matter what the circumstance. you believe in the best in people and this doesn't make you naive, in fact we need more of you in this world.
i miss you. i am grateful for you. and i look forward to many, many, many, many, many more seasons of life together.
oprah's 25 years may have come and gone, but i'm still in this. til we're grannies in greencross shoes. with awesome pink pashminas x
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