Megan Beach
Megan Beach. Voted most likely to become President by the class of 2015 and worst van driver by her track club at Northwestern University.
Also, the embodiment of Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls.
When I brought up doing a photo shoot to Megan, she said she wanted it to have a theme and that it should be fun, so the first thing I thought of was bubbles and a ribbon wand.
And she just happened to have a pink fairy-looking dress that she loves and fit the aesthetic of the ideas perfectly.
And that, with a little glitter, is the story of how this quickly became the most ‘extra’ photo shoot in the history of photo shoots.
Megan and I met before our freshman year at high school during the intense summer training for cross country. She had hair all the way down her back then.
But, since we were both pretty quiet, our friendship didn’t truly begin until we sat next to each other on a car ride to the cross country state meet that November.
I remember having that ‘oh, this is gonna be a good friendship’ moment in the car when she told me about her deep Harry Potter obsession; A Very Potter Musical, podcasts, fan fictions and all. And I, then, explained to her my great and obnoxious love for the Irish band, Celtic Thunder, and my ultimate life goal, making it to Ireland.
We spent the whole ride laughing at our crazy, fan-girl selves.
Megan and I have been through miles and miles of running, through blizzards that made us feel like our fingers had fallen off, and hours and hours of biking on stationary bikes, in a stuffy corner of a gym, because we had run to the point of injury.
But, through all of it, Megan has projected strength and ferocity while being one of those people you can cry to and let it all out. And, I’ll add, she will also admit when it’s her that needs a shoulder to cry on which is a lesson we all must make sure we are comfortable with.
On another note, before I took out my camera, Megan said, “You have to tell me what to do because I don’t know what looks good. I’m not a model.”
I shot down that lie right away and she worked my camera to the point of filling up my memory card.
Megan Beach. She’ll always be one to go on a run and talk about life with. And when our knees can’t take the pavement, we’ll be speed walking buddies. I'd like to think we’ll be racing our wheelchairs around a track one day.
Life is good and Megan makes it better.~kj