Blog #3--What did I do to get unfriended on Facebook?

My original thought about “What did I do to get unfriended on Facebook?” is still what I would like to write for my Long Essay 1.  The class heard the story and some of the details.  There are several ways in which I thought I could go with the story:

• Friendships and how some last a lifetime, some don’t, but the ones that last mean you have to put more time and effort into continuing when the distance separates the friends—email and social media helps with the effort, as well as the good, old-fashioned telephone
• Events in our lives shape who we are, but some events/words/people hurt us and will often make us shy away from those people who hurt us—family dysfunctions often stem from spoken words that hurt, leaving family members estranged from each other for years or forever, and the same could be said for friendships
• Shooting the messenger is the most prominent display of anger in certain situations, as was the one I experienced—is it possible for such displays of anger to be controlled with words by the messenger, or would the messenger be shooting the receiver of the delivery?
• Social media is a great way to keep in touch and find old friends, but do written words alone, without the inflection of the spoken word, really carry the true meaning of the words?  
• In one class I had a few semesters ago, there was a discussion about breaking up with someone over the phone through a text:  if the text was “K.” then it was completely over, if it said “K” without the period, there was hope that there was still a chance to reconcile, and if the text was “KK” then it was just a joke.  How is it possible to know these little nuances of text-ese until those nuances are on your screen?  Whatever happened to just plain breaking up in person?  Maybe these people only “date” through social media and have never even met face-to-face.
• Twins are often inseparable in life, because they feel a strong connection, not only as siblings, but for reasons only a twin would understand, and when these strong feelings are hurt, it hurts deeper than words can say.  How is it that siblings can go for long periods without seeing each other, but still know that the other is there, even when distance separates them, while twins can sometimes sense what the other is doing, even with the distance?

I was trying to figure out how to start the essay and thought I would start at the beginning of the friendship, so I wrote several paragraphs to get my thoughts moving:

Barbara, The Brain; Carol, The Capable; and Mary Ellen, The Mouth.  Those were the monikers we gave each other after becoming best friends in our junior year of high school.  The only one who still calls me Mouth is JoAnn, the younger sister of Barbara and Carol—who are twins.   I suppose I deserve The Mouth, since I am always the one to put in a humorous comment, or two, even to the teachers.  My sense of humor will often get me in trouble, but, hey!  I have a lot to say, and you don’t have to like what I say, but I’m going to say it anyway.  You can’t blame me for being honest, can you?

At first it was hard to tell Barbara from Carol and vice versa, because I needed to try to remember who wore which glasses, but then I started to notice the physical differences between the two, since they closely resembled each other, as siblings and twins often do.  They were about the same height, but Carol had more weight on her than Barbara, and Barbara’s hair tended to flip out on one side—thanks to a cowlick or two.  Barbara had what she called a “bubble gum” nose, since the cartilage at the end of her nose had the look as if bubble gum was stuck to it, and Carol’s didn't.  So, now that I can tell who’s who, it doesn't really matter, since we do everything together, but at least I can call them by their right names.

It all began when in our third period history class we noticed that the three of us had, so far, been in all of the same classes.  We compared our schedules and realized that out of 7 possible classes, we had 6 all together, with only the last class of the day being different—I had a crafts class, and they had fine arts. So from that moment on, we went everywhere together during school.  Our friendship had begun and was fast and holding steady through our junior and senior years of high school and the summers between and after.

We were getting ready to hit the real world of work and college during the summer after graduation.  Barbara and Carol found work as nurse’s aides in a nursing home, while I started to work in a craft store at the mall.  I was to attend the local community college in New Jersey, while Barbara and Carol were headed off to a small Catholic college in southwestern Maine.  We promised to keep in touch through letters—old-fashioned social media using paper and pen, envelopes and stamps—and we did a fine job of it for the years that they were away in Maine.

Is starting at the beginning of the friendship the right route to take to delve into the "shooting the messenger" event I experienced?  Should I just write about my most recent visit to Barbara in Maine and the delivery of the photo album to Carol in NJ?  Would it be better to do a chronological telling of the day the "shooting the messenger" happened?  What are your thoughts?