Columbian Friends Volume Five: David Metzger

David and I have been buddies for almost a decade now. In high school we were debate and duo partners and helped bridge the gap in our school between theatre and speech. Although we went to different colleges and he’s on the other side of the country now, we’re still extremely close. There are few people in the world that can make me laugh, challenge me, be as loyal to me, or inspire me as much as David can. He’s a really great person and a super friend. I think the following story will illustrate that:

When we were juniors in high school, David and I really didn’t know what the hell we were doing in speech, largely because our coach was absolutely no help. However, we knew we were pretty good interpers, so when we went to the national qualifying tournament, we thought we had a decent, but not great, change to earn a birth at nats.

After three exhausting and intense days, David and I competed in duo finals, which were around 8:00 am. Awards weren’t until 4:30 that afternoon, and the stress would have killed us had we not went to a local movie theatre and watched “The Whole Nine Yards.” When awards finally came and they announced that we had won the tournament and were going to nationals, we couldn’t believe it. Finally, after a few seconds, we just stood and hugged hard. Although I had many great speech moments later in my career, none of them made me feel as proud and happy as I did in that moment because David and I had done it together. I think that’s a great analogy for our friendship—we are stronger together than either of us could be apart.