Best Man Holiday

The Best Man cast is back, and they are still up to the same shananagains that can only come from the bond of being life long fiends. There is a difference between the friends we make as kids in school and the friends we make in college or the military. Friends we make in college and the  military have been through the fire with you and back. They are  the keeper of your secrets, the good and the bad. There is a bond between you that people outside your inner circle just don’t get. Most of the time you don’t remember what it was that made you click. It just happened. Looking back when you first met you were all probably so different no one would ever think you would be anything but mortal enemies. There is where the magic of college friendships lies. The Best Man Holiday is our Big Chill, the aftermath of Cooley High, Sex and the City the movies.  Who doesn’t love a good reunion.

15 years have passed since The Best Man starring Taye Diggs, Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Sanaa Lathan, and Regina Hall, Terrence Howard,  Monica Calhoun, and Harold  first premiered. From the previews like most old friends the only thing that has changed is that they have gotten older. Yet not one of them looks it.  Though their careers have taken them in different directions they have kept in touch through email, phone calls, social media, and watching each other’s stars  rocket towards success in the news.  In the Best Man Holiday we find ourselves instantly immersed in a world where old friends come together once again, but at the same time struggling with our own memories of the counterparts  of the characters in the The Best Man Holiday in our lives. What we find watching the movie is what we already know,  real friendship never dies. You can go fifteen years without seeing someone and the minute you walk in the door you find yourself picking up right where you left off.  There is always the one you just shake your head and laugh at. The one you have to apologize for because they are always getting krunk. But you laugh all the way home because though they weren’t tactful they  are usually right. The one who drinks too much and then calls you at 4 am with the uh oh radio. The one who is super perfect but all their life is a mess. Deep inside you know one day they’l get it together and be special. You hope. :-). Go ahead sit there reading this pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about, I know you do. Please let’s not forget the constant voice of reason. Didn’t we all just want ot throw that one over a balcony. Clearly I was not the voice of reason. LMBO. I wouldn’t change those days for anything in the world.  And in our case their was always the fool who was about to administer a beat down over missing a Michigan game or some other sporting event. Not saying that was me, but we had one that would cut up over a sale at the Louis Vuitton store.  Oh wait we still do those things allegedly.

Here is the real test of friendship. If you saw the original in the theater you remember who saw it with. Was it that fine man or chick you had just started dating? Or was it your girls or if you are a guy that group of guys that got you through life’s obstacles.  If you were a girl you probably did both. Who could miss the chance to see that much eye candy on the big screen at one time. There was somebody for everybody. Guess I’ll go ahead and out myself Morris Chestnut is my movie husband. Oh don’t act like you don’t have one too. But I have the best of both worlds my real hubby is phine. Maybe you don’t think so, but he didn’t marry you did he? 🙂 But I digress. I have seen the first movie so many times it’s ridiculous. The funny part, I still yell at he screen when Morris and Taye  are in the chapel and Morris insists he is not walking down the aisle. You what. Boy we all have on these dresses, hair done and the guys have on tuxes looking FINER than wine. Oh you walking. Shut that nonsense down.
I think I mentioned 15 years have passed on screen and in real life since we have seen our friends. Do I remember that fly by night brother I saw it with, nope can say that I do. Clearly he didn’t make a big impression.  I can tell you how many times I’ve watched it with my hubby. What I’ll never forget  is the ladies I saw it with.  Sharene Brash, and Rasheida Hay. We live worlds apart now. Life happens and sometimes growing up means pulling up roots. Still some roots always cling. From crazy boyfriends, struggling to find our space and our way, being single mothers, to each of us finding our soul-mates we’ve been through it all. Yes, even a few funerals. Life and death wait for no man or woman. Though our schedules don’t allow us much more than a phone call here and there, a quick Facebook post, or text I love my sisters. No one will ever know what we’ve shared together but us. Times change, addresses change, lives change and our hearts expand to add others, but friends – real friends they are always there singing the soundtrack to the greatest moments of our life.
Of course I am going to see The Best Man Holiday more times  than I can count. But tonight I am going to watch the original and reminisce about not only the good times the lifelong friends had in the Best Man but all the great times, and even some of the not so great times I had with my college friends Sharene and Rasheida.  Nick and I already have our tickets for our showing of  THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY. But before I go see it with him I am going to see it with my oldest and best friend, love you mom.  Now instead of  a girls’ weekend  we have to plan family retreats. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Next summer I’m going to find a way to watch it with my sisters and their husbands and our kids. Man fifteen years changes a lot. Until then I’ll remember the good times.
Love and Basketball,  The Best Man, Love Jones, and Brown Sugar are my favorite movies from my college years. Not because I had found the love any of them had found in those movies.  They were my favorites then because they made me believe in the possibility that one day I COULD find a love like that. Now that I have that, I’m so glad they bought our old friends back so we can check in on them. Can’t wait to see how much they have grown and changed, and stayed the  same in the fifteen years we’ve been apart. And then reflect on how I’ve grown and changed in the years that have flown by after the credits roll.
It’s time to kick off the Holidays. Cheers to lifelong friends, love, life, and antics that can only come when you’ve shared coming of age memories with a group of people. One love, peace, and style to the best sisters a girl without sisters could have  ever asked for. Love and Joy Twany, and Ra. It’s time for us to start planning our reunion and make some new memories.

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