The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation bewtween the US, the Soviet Union, and Cuba in October 1962, during the Cold War. When United States intelligence discovered the nuclear weapons being held in Cuba, its government decided to do all they could to ensure the removal of them.

*THANKS WIKIPEDIA.*

Unlike world leaders during the cold war, I don’t have the impending threat of nuclear war on my home. My crisis occurred a bit differently and it came and concluded quite unexpectedly.

My experience with a Cuban Missile was much more hazardous. One beautiful afternoon on foreign soil (Virginia…), I was introduced to youth correspondents of various states. All of us being entirely different, we met with open minds. All of us had different views on different world issues (such as major league baseball.) Putting our sports  preferences aside, I decided to give a particular Miami resident a chance to redeem himself since there was still hope for him and his national league devotion.

In minimal time, the heat of miami merged with the frigid north and was doodling panelist faces at the National Press Club while assessing the newly added letter “the triple u”, commonly inserted in words spelt with “al’s” such as talk>>tawlk; call>>cawll. Even during the boring presentations, it was easy to FUHGEDDABOUTIT over a good cafeteria lunch, not to mention a voicemail from dad. His obsession with the flowering new york accents flourished into a well developed fan club. Perhaps without that, I wouldn’t have formed so many friendships. But for sure, after a good time at the grand Gala, a can of Nos, and an all nighter, we had a friendship worth preserving.

After vacations like mine at WJMC, you’re left the option to take what you have learned and look straight ahead, or to cherish knowledge gained as much as friendships created. The Cuban Missile crisis occured on his last minutes at the conference. I had to put all of the energy I could muster after a night of no more than an hour of sleep into not crying. As I walked out to the bus and received the last hug and the last wave, the reality of losing a friend blew up in my face. I’m not sure how I did it, but I survived that war. I had no option left but to wait until his flight landed, he regained service and I got the chance to text him. And I did. and for the last four days, it has been constant. And through it all we have promised that we will come out victorious; we will meet up again and in the mean time we’ll spend our time sharing music online and mapquest the fastest routes to eachother.

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