My best friend of 20+ years—
I remember it like it was yesterday. Sleepovers every night, having our parents drive us everywhere while begging to listen to Avril Laveinge, and the only pledge we were taking was trying to “serve God and the Country” and to “live by the Girl Scout Law.”
We soon retired our brown, patched up vests for tennis uniforms and killed it on the court together as doubles partners. High school is when we truly realized we needed each other, that we were more than friends, but sisters. We balanced each other. When I was sad, you were there to make me laugh. When you were down, I was there to pick you up. And quite frankly, friends like that are hard to come by now a days.
It’s scary making that transition into college, you begin to question if you’ll see any of your friends again, you fear what will change in your small town while you’re away at school. But more importantly, you wonder if your best friend will find someone to replace you. It’s like a breakup—but maybe worse. But we didn’t have to worry, Bloomsburg got both of us.
Just like all the times before, people knew us as a pair. Our names were often said together, people often questioning where the other one was if we weren’t together. We took on our first college party together, “failed” our test together, made it through anatomy practical’s, and even stupid break ups with the guys that didn’t matter. We sat on the steps of the Student Services Center, overlooking the quad, joking about how long we had left at Bloomsburg. Trying so hard to imagine when we are seniors, promising we would sit on those steps together, four year later so we can finally say we made it. It’s scary to say that time has come.
So when we sit on those steps, one last time, this I promise you friend—
When we move onto graduate school and have to take on life without each other, I will never replace you. When we have to part ways in just thirty days and spend the most time apart than we ever have, I will never forget you. I promise to carry the memories with me wherever I go. I promise that you will always have a best friend in me. I promise to chat weekly, text daily, and snap endless. I promise to call just to freak out about a test I have the next day, because God knows you’re the only one that can calm me down. I promise to send you ugly snaps when you’re having a bad day and to binge out on ice cream because I only live once. I promise that we when finally get to be on breaks and come back to where we came from, it will be like no time has passed at all.
It’s been a crazy, whirlwind, these past 20 years and I have no one to thank but you. Thank you for being my forever friend. Thanks for being you.