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The Small Differences
The moments we have with friends and family,
the chances we have to make even a small difference,
all those wonderful chances life gives us, life also takes away.
It can happen a lot sooner than you think.
~ Larry Page
I’m driving across the country on my road trip during the summer of 2016, and today I am in Arizona on my way back home to California. This part of the southwest all looks the same to my untrained and unfamiliar eyes. It’s Saturday, the second of July and I have another hundred miles to go to get to Phoenix. I will spend the night there and then drive another hundred fifty miles to Blythe, California where I will have lunch with longtime friends I have known since we were all in college together at UCLA so very long ago.
Randy and Jen hit is off right away when they first met during our first quarter together in the fall of 1974. We had an economics class together every morning, as well as a study hall two afternoons each week. When you spend that much time with people during an experience like attending UCLA as an undergraduate you get to know each other pretty well.
He made it clear from the very beginning he would be returning to Blythe to take over the family farm once he graduated. Randy was the youngest of three brothers and the…
