A Best Friends Handshake
The tradition that I could think of on the top of my mind would have to be one that is between two best friends, Eryn and I. For as long as I could remember we have always had this certain handshake between us we call it the fist and explode. But since I have to think back to when it actually happened and why, would have to be because of a movie that we had watched together. In this movie (step up 2) there was a kid named moose who thought that this handshake was cool, so he showed it to his new-ish friend. By doing this handshake it showed that moose didn’t care about what others thought of him, he was just himself. From seeing this movie and every moment from then on Eryn and I thought it was cool and would be awesome if we had our own handshake. Even though we don’t truly do it just like Moose in the movie Step up 2 we still have a form of it because it did originally come from him and that movie. How moose does it is that he fist bumps, then he sucks in then he “blow’s it up”. How Eryn and I do it is by doing the fist bump and then we explode it! When we do this is usually when we do or say something clever/ funny. Sometimes we even do it just to make a laugh or just when we look at each other. I would say that the folklore groups that practice this would have to be between two friends (Eryn and I). We practice this tradition not for the fact that it’s a routine but for the fact that this is us, this is how we show are true and utter self. We practice this handshake in the beginning because it gave us a laugh, made us happy. But now? Now we do it for the same reason that moose did it, to show people that we are who we are, and there is no shame in this. We have gone these five some odd years hearing others tell us that they don’t understand us, that they don’t understand our kind of friendship. We got tired of hearing this, and yes people still say things but this handshake means us, means our friendship. With this handshake we have learned that yes people can have their opinion but that does not mean that we have to abide by them, listen to what those others say about us, put us down and make us feel low. Yes we would allow others into our group but like I said no one understands it truly, so we are true friends. Now see if someone did come along like us and did are handshake with us we would be glad to allow them to join our group, it would actually make us very happy to have others in our group. We would feel liked. This tradition identifies us as a group, as true friend.
I interviewed my best friend Eryn Eccles, and as best friends we agreed on how we originally came up with are fist and explode handshake and the reasons behind it.
