To preface this story, let me give you a description of my car...and old Camry, completely covered in bumper stickers collected at random festivals and shows. Along with the Grateful Dead, Bob Marley and Panic, I had three Phish stickers- a beautiful car.

Now you must understand my city. Charleston, West Virginia. A nice place, don't get me wrong, there is just a complete lack of everything. Besides my best friends, who go to different schools than me, there is a deficit of phishheads.

On my 16th birthday, which, unfortunately was a school day, I walked out to the mentioned car at an inaudibly early hour to drive to school. A pleasant spring day. My birthday. I noticed a piece of paper on the windshield of my car, and the first thing I thought was, "Oh, shit! I got a ticket!" After a few more seconds I realized this was impossible because my car was parked directly in front of my house. I picked up the paper, which turned out to be an old, ripped open envelope with writing on it. I curiously read the following message (which may have some errors, as the envelope is upstairs and I am not, and I am lazy):

The coolest thing I've seen in months is your phish sticker! I moved here from California and one of the things I noticed is a complete lack of phishheads. Gimme a call sometime and we'll trade music and hang out.  -Frank (insert his phone number here)

I was ecstatic. I never ended up calling the guy because I am an extreme procrastinator, but we did meet up soon after receiving this letter, just by chance. It turned out that we live right near each other.  This incident completely made my birthday- what an awesome present! The gift of knowing you're not alone.
Peace and Love,

-  Jess