Sean Franzen

I’m not in contact with Sean as much as I’d like to be.  This is my fault.  I’m going to fix that – but not as a new years resolution.  Sean was my best friend growing up and his family is super special to me.  They’re the kind of family that you make ‘security’ questions about on websites to confirm who you are because you instantly remember details like phone number and address [all which have changed] because you nearly lived there [disclosure: I have none with their information, so this is not useful to hackers].

Sean and I met at a community play when we were in the 4th grade.  I had somewhat recently moved to Carson City, NV as my dad had taken on a job in the area.  We were in a one week production of Jack and the Beanstalk.  And by one week I mean we were cast on one Friday and did our first public production the following Friday.  We were in the play’s circus together (I believe as clowns) and each only had one line.  We were already doing one-liners together in the 4th grade. [I know you didn’t even laugh at that, but I am writing it anyways]

Sean had [and still has, but I’m writing about my childhood here] a great knack for creative things like art, music, writing, photography and even children names.  He had a running list of weird, creative and interesting names for children.  The one I remember to this day is Jervrarvry.  It sounds just like you’re thinking, I promise.  Sean (primarily) and I came up with a code alphabet to use in Math class.  We would pass notes in an alphabet so obscure and awkward to write that note passing was a very tedious process.  We were good at tedious.

Sean and I would listen to music from his parent’s amazingly broad music collection.  He’d jump up and play a cut from a jazz record – say Stan Getz – and then we’d switch to a CD of funk-punk [Primus is Funk-Punk, right?] followed by Garth Brooks.  That would of course need to be followed by the Hallelujah Chorus to help cause mental chaos.  And emotional chaos.  Music does that.  It’s like emotions thrown into a blender when you switch genres that disjointedly.

Sean got a scholarship to go to the Hallmark School of Photography because they realized how brilliant he was (and still is).  You’ve seen his work in photography and photoshop whether you realize it or not.  He’s worked on high-profile projects that were sent internationally for advertising campaigns.  He’s just that good.

I’m thankful for the years of laughter we had together, the weeks of fear we had together doing things like staying alone at our homes while our parents were out of town and camping together in the wilderness.  The hours of tears [some of which I caused].  I’m thankful for listening to “Love Shack” by the B-52’s over and over and over and over again with his parents and John Franklin, one of our friends, on the way to a ghost town in California for his birthday one year.

I’m thankful that while we’re not as close as we used to be that we can jump onto each other’s radar with the Internet and catch up on life, liberty, jazz and the pursuit of rappiness.  I love you, man!