The Lobster

My last post referenced a man many of you do not know. This is a man that I don't really know, at least these days. Tyler Baxter was someone who I could turn to for anything. He was someone who knew what to say when I couldn't find the words, or when others were too scared to say anything. He was someone I admired a great deal. He put his family before everything and for that I guess I shouldn't ever get upset with the way he's treated us. We thought he was our best friend, the fourth leg of our quad-pod group. I have always forgiven him more than the others I think because of the hard things I have been through in my life since I was a freshman at Emporia but he's never ditched me the way he has ditch my other friends.

Tyler is the guy who got me hooked on Kenny Chesney during the summertime. He is the guy who made me want to join Sigma Pi and become a leader that they needed. Tyler was a Washburn guy at heart trying to keep the promises he made to his Emporia State friends. He was the guy who listened to his heart and what was right for him and not what was best for our friendships. I'm not saying it was our faults that we aren't friends with him anymore, but it probably wasn't easy for him. He cut us out of his life for a reason and I pray that he is better off because of it because I miss him dearly. Tyler was one of my best friends in this world and there aren't a lot of people like that bald headed man in it.

I will share the story about why this post is titled "The Lobster." Back in the spring of 2005 my parents were thinking about buying a house for my friends and I to live in after we moved out of the dorms that semester (I am so glad they decided not to). We were all going to live it just like we had all been living together in room 306. Me, Brett, Craig and Tyler were all going to move in. It was a great idea. That is until Tyler came up to us and told us about Sig Pi. He had pledged Sig Pi the first semester we were at Emporia State and decided he was going to move home at Christmas break because he hated it. He quit being a pledge. He didn't like a thing about that town and school. Until he met us. He decided that since he was staying at ESU he would re-pledge Sig Pi. We didn't care about that and thought it would be cool to have a friend in a frat that we could go party at.

But being in Sig Pi obviously meant that he couldn't live with us. It wasn't a devastating blow or something we got mad at him about (especially since Craig and I ended pledging anyway) but we couldn't let him get away with it without giving him a hard time. One day Craig, Brett and I were walking around Wal-Mart and noticed the giant tanks of lobsters they had in the produce area and decided that it looked like a sun burnt Tyler Baxter. Red and bald. Eventually he asked who we were going to have live with us instead of him and we told him that no one would move into the room he was to occupy, but that we would buy a lobster, take care of it, let it grow, and then eventually eat it.

From that time on we called him the Lobster. It's one of those random stories that always makes me laugh and whenever I see an actual lobster or Red Lobster commercial I think of him. And that's what makes his choice to ignore us so hard. I can't just forget about him or all the times we had together. All the close talks we had, the times we cried together. I'm reminded of him constantly and it sucks. I hope, deep down, that he will come with us to celebrate Brett's big day with us guys, the ones who convinced him to stay at a place he hated. Tyler, I love you and pray that you have found an easier life and a better life. We all have and we all miss you just the same.