I have a friend who is a built like a rock and is also my rock from a metaphoric sense. His name: Jon Vitale. I’ve grown up with this kid since the sixth grade, meeting through a mutual friend of ours. By the end of the playdate, a forever bond was formed. The thing about a great friendship is there’s always a glue that binds us together. Well if you know me a little by now, what better glue to bond than a love over Superman and DBZ.
It would start with a quest. Jon had the complete library of Smallville and we were instantly hooked. It was summer time so I would spend days on end at his house, watching Smallville with him. Watching Clark Kent become the hero he was meant to be with your new best friend couldn’t have been a better experience. We literally got to the end of Smallville to the last episode but didn’t watch it for some reason…. Jon and I switched to DBZ, and didn’t look back. Comiting to all 291 episodes of Goku and friends was about as epic as you’d think.
After our Superman and DBZ journey had ended, it was time for Jon and I to start our own journey: College. We were roomies at William Paterson freshman year at college and boy, did we fucking hate it. Don’t get me wrong, we had plenty of highlights. Especially the chocolate drink night where we got drunk, with you guessed it, chocolate drink and embarrassed ourselves in front of the entire campus. But we needed to go on separate adventures for a bit. We grew with Clark. Trained with Goku. Now it was time for Jon and I to have separate adventures of our own.
Each time we were reunited it was a blast. We would reminisce of years’ past and team up for different antics all the time. After we graduated college, we stayed in touch for the highs and lows of our twenties. As time passed, though, Jon had the most exciting of news. He was getting married! He was one of the first of my friends to get married, and it was fitting because Jon always went for what he wanted, and his quest was underway.
A few days before Jon’s wedding we finally watched the end of Smallville. After I watched the triumphant transformation of Clark Kent to Superman, I would see Jon marry his metaphorical Lois Lane a day later. We ended our Smallville journey and began a new one: the quest for all of the Dragon Balls.