TJ VAZQUEZ-IZZLE
It was a cold autumn afternoon and I was headed to church band practice. I got to the church’s gym and everything seemed perfectly normal, except for the cacophony that was coming from the stage. To my surprise was a crazy little gremlin-like person standing on the stage playing guitar like a madman. After seeing this out of the ordinary sight, I went to my youth minister to see what all this was about. Apparently this gremlin went by the name of TJ, and my youth minister, Dave, met him at the Apple Store in Macarthur Mall.
I approached this guitar-playing gremlin and introduced myself. I was greeted with a greeting that I wasn’t really expecting. TJ had an exasperated smile with a loud, high pitched voice and said,
“Hey! Name’s TJ, what’s yours?” I was flabbergasted by this overly enthusiastic greeting. I was expecting more of a
“Hi”, but this greeting gave me more of a positive first impression that could’ve had many outcomes. Luckily I actually approached this crazy man rather than just ignore the fact that he was prancing around all over the stage playing guitar.
That night went rather unexpectedly in the sense that the cops didn’t come to church because of TJ’s shenanigans. All that he did the whole night was bring great enthusiasm to everyone and play acoustic guitar with the church band.
As the night came to an end, I actually went to talk to TJ; to find out why exactly he was here. He said that he worked at the Apple Store and met Dave there, as he was going to buy a new computer, a Mac computer at that. He also said that his family lived in Kansas, and that he was here to finish school at Virginia Wesleyan, which he finished in May of 2007. Apparently he was living at his friend’s parent’s house for the time he was here. He was living like a college student, as a college graduate; the Dollar Tree being his favorite store. He was very parsimonious; every penny counted. He was one of those people that would camp out at Wal Mart all night to risk their life to save ten dollars.
TJ was also not one of the people that you would want to see in a dark alley in downtown Norfolk at night. No matter what, every time I saw him he managed to always have 5 o’clock shadow. He had long, dark, curly hair that flew in the air like snakes trying to float into the air like an airplane. If you look a little to the right (his left) you will see a giant gauge making a hole in his ear. TJ is out of the ordinary, and just uses that as his “artistic expression” and his way to be different.
Since that night at church, TJ and I have been the best of friends. It works out that he can drive, so he usually spends most of his time driving me around town. Whether it be making a video about a thrift store t-shirt, eating Dollar Store food, or even stealing internet from Panera Bread, TJ and I did it all.
In May of 2008, TJ left to return to his family in Kansas. Now we don’t really get to see each other much, considering he’s over 1000 miles away; but there are a few exceptions. When I went with my church to a youth conference in Tennessee in July, TJ met us there and stayed the whole week with us. Just last week TJ just so happened to be in town, and we hung out a few times. We still get to talk, whether it is through text messages, phone calls, or even over tumblr (an online blog site).
TJ has taught me that you shouldn’t always spend more than you have to. He also taught me that you don’t always have to do what everyone else is doing, to be iconoclastic, to be against the current. Instead of buying the clothes that everyone else has, just wear something different and be yourself.
