color esperanza

I love this song. Every time I hear it I think of Guadalajara, Mexico.

I remember learning it in a tiny classroom.
I remember singing it almost every other day in class after that.
I remember dancing with Brad and the other boys in the group to this song...still in that little classroom.

Lauralee and I would listen to it all the time in our room.
We told Gabriel and Alejandro that it was our new favorite song, and Gabriel told us we had good taste. It was also his mom's favorite song.
All four of us would sing it in Alejandro's car as we roadtripped it to Chapala and other little Mexican towns.

We listened to it our last night there.
And then we had to go back to the States.

But Lauralee made it her alarm for the entire next semester.
And one of the times we skyped with Gabriel and Alejandro, we sang this song to them.
They thought it was pretty great.

I miss those two boys.
I miss Mexico.

What I wouldn't give for another night with Lauralee, Gabriel, and Alejandro right now. Tacos de la calle + salsa dancing. Churros + water fights. Miradores + car rides. Good friends + good times.

We've kind of all started to go our separate ways now. Gabriel is studying in Monterrey, Alejandro just started a new career, Lauralee is going on a mission to Guatemala, and I'm just studying away here at BYU. But when we skype each other, we've still got all the same inside jokes and nothing's changed.

They tell us we're fresa, and somehow we still tell them that they're a "big deal." They think it's pretty funny, but they tell us we've got that right. And they promise us that if we ever come back, they'll take us to Tarrascos and then out to dance. After they get us soaked.

And that's why every time I hear that song, I start to smile and I can't even help it.
Some things are too good to be forgotten.