Happy Birthday, Tavara
I have this great memory of me and my childhood friend, Tavara Lynee Parks, dancing around her bedroom in our pajamas to the song Last Night by Az Yet. We were 14 or 15-year-old church girls that had no business listening to a song about a man that saw the sun, the moon, the mountains, and the rivers while making love, let alone choreographing a dance to it! The final routine, part pantomime, part praise dance, and part 1970’s shuffle, became something we adapted over and over again throughout our high school years.
Tavara and I had been inseparable for many years before that - my first memory of us together is actually from first grade! Throughout our elementary, middle, and high school years, our lives inside and outside of school were entirely in sync. We ate lunch together, participated in many of the same after-school activities, went to church, the mall and movies together, and even managed to date boys that were related to each other or best friends.
I’m pretty sure Tavara was in the next room when I had my first kiss, and she was definitely present for my first heartbreak.
My first business venture was with Tavara via an entrepreneurship class in a college preparation program. We deftly combined our astrological signs to launch a “company” called ScorLeo. We bought jewelry wholesale and sold it to our family members, classmates, and church friends for a reasonable markup. Some of the profits made it to our savings accounts, but mostly we bought candy and matching outfits.
If you knew Tavara and me, you would know how uncanny this friendship was; our personalities couldn’t have been more different. She was laid-back and took things in stride. I was intense and obsessed with perfection. She valued her downtime, and I was active in 11 school clubs. She was a balancing force in my life before I had the words to articulate or acknowledge it.
We went to college in different states, and our friendship became somehow relegated to lunch, dinner, or a nostalgic sleepover during the holidays in our hometown. There was no love lost, but that see-you-at-Christmas-time routine persisted beyond our undergraduate years and into our lives as independent adults.
During the holiday season in 2006, Tavara and I, and a few other girlfriends got together and decided that we would do a better job of keeping in touch. At a minimum, we promised to be there for each other for important milestones. In May of 2007, while en route to the graduation ceremony of one of those girlfriend’s, Tavara was in a car accident that took her life. She was 25.
A few of us that were friends with Tavara get together from time to time, and inevitably her name comes up. We don’t fight it – we let it happen – it’s a way to keep her memory alive and a way to remind ourselves to seize the day. I hope this blog will serve the same purposes.
Happy Birthday, Tavara! Love you, girlfriend!
Genia Wright, Free Time Aficionado
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