Sometimes in life, you come in contact with people that enhance and brighten your world by just being themselves. Sometimes you befriend people like this, thinking nothing of it, and the next thing you know, it’s seven years later and you’re taking on college together. Lindsey Oldt, this one’s for you.
On the first day of seventh grade at Northern Guilford Middle School in Greensboro, North Carolina, I was a nervous wreck. I had just moved that summer from Chicago and was starting at a new school where everyone had known each other for years and had already established groups of friends. To top it all off, everyone knows that middle school is a living hell, disregarding the situation of moving 800 miles away from the place I was born and raised. However, that day wasn’t a total disaster because, ladies and gentlemen, that was the day I met my best friend.
I’ll spare everyone the details of what Lindsey and I were like in middle school by summing us up in three words: hyper and weird. Together, we were analogous to the chemical reaction you would get if you did that thing with Coke and Mentos (does anyone else remember going out to the parking lot in sixth-grade chemistry and doing that?). When we met, something just clicked and felt right, which is the simplest way I can put it.
Lindsey and I somehow survived those torturous middle school years and grew even closer throughout high school. We supported and loved each other unconditionally through every obstacle that life threw at us: AP classes, college applications, psychotic teachers, boy drama, surgeries, etc. She was the first person I would turn to when I was struggling with something, and the first person I wanted to share good news with. I have countless memories of late-night drives, swim meets, Target runs, dance parties and movie nights. It didn’t matter what we did when we were together. We could hang out in my room for hours and not say anything, and I would be perfectly content. You know you’ve got something real with someone when just their presence makes everything better.
Fast forward to now, when Lindsey and I are both first years here at Chapel Hill. (Funnily enough, Lindsey actually read out my acceptance letter to UNC to me over the phone because I was driving to a swim meet and didn’t have time to check). I didn’t realize, when I first came to college, how much I would need her during the transition and how much better things would be because she’s here with me. Making new friends is awesome but sometimes it’s nice to be around someone who knows literally everything about you, so none of the pressure is there. We laugh at the weirdest things that probably make no sense to anyone else, but this is what happens when you have seven years’ worth of inside jokes. She can reverse my mood in a heartbeat and make me smile when no one else can. We can look at each other and know exactly what the other person is thinking at any given time. It’s the best feeling when you get to be around someone every day who is passionate and ambitious and kind and intelligent and hilarious, and Linds, I could ramble for hours about all of your amazing qualities.
Whenever I think about my future, Lindsey is always in it. No matter what happens in college or whatever separate paths we end up on, I know that nothing can tear us apart. I’m not confident about most things in my topsy-turvy life where things are constantly changing, but I am certain of that.
There’re so many possibilities of what we might do, such as living together after graduation or traveling together or working in the same city. It doesn’t matter how far apart we are because I know that we will make it work and always find our way back to each other. We’re going to be in each other’s weddings. We’ll most likely be the crazy people in the nursing home chasing each other around in our wheelchairs. My children will probably call her “Aunt Lindsey” and grow up with a model of what unconditional love looks like in a friendship.
Lindsey Oldt, you mean the world to me.
I’m going to close with something I saw on Twitter a couple days ago that really resonated with me: “Soulmates don’t have to be someone that you’re romantically involved with. Sometimes your soulmate is literally your best friend.”
I’ve definitely found my soulmate.
(P.S. check out our amazing college playlist that we made together here).