I have always had a
best friend, as long as I can remember. Not a different one, with each passing year, although many special people have come and gone, and I am lucky to have several forever friends. But today, I celebrate my best friend. I met her in preschool, she was one of my first friends when I moved to Carmel Valley. A few years later, my family announced that her family would be moving in with ours. This is
every little girl's dream to have a friend move in with you. Especially considering I was so much younger than my sisters, so to have someone my age to talk to and play with was a dream come true. It was not always such a fairytale, mind you. There were the days when she refused to play board games with me, and when I painted the most
horrendous Cinderella across her face, and the days when we left each other out and hurt each other's feelings because we wanted to play with other friends. There was the summer that I spent practicing my multiplication tables because I couldn't master them in the third grade, while she danced around the kitchen because she had skipped the third grade, and had mastered them without even going. There were the days she came home from dance practice tired and hungry, and I learned to wait until after she had eaten to try to get her to play with me. But
that's sisterhood, right? There were also the costumes that we put on for plays and dances that we performed for the adults. There was playing Little Mermaid in the hot tub. There were the nights (many) when I would be just about to fall asleep and I would hear, from the bottom bunk, "Colleen?" and I would respond, "Yeah?" and without fail, she would then reply, "Are you awake?" There were uncontrollable fits of giggles. There was the
irreplacable feeling that someone is growing up right alongside you. Before we went to middle school, we had moved into separate houses, and then we spent three long years at separate schools. But there were many phone calls, to discuss the ever important subjects of boys and school dances and the like. In high school, we were so
happily reunited at Carmel High. Although our lifestyles were different, with her being the cheerleader and the dance team captain and the homecoming queen (she's probably cringing at being reminded), and I was happy to fade into the background, we still shared our lives. In college and afterward, we moved on to new cities and
new adventures, but always knowing that the other was just a phone call away. I have a lifetime of memories with my best friend: dancing, singing, laughing, crying, talking, arguing, pretending, camping, traveling, exploring, separating and reuniting. I look forward to
a million more memories in the rest of this life. Today is her birthday, and she is living 3,000 miles away. So I wanted to make sure, that with just a click of a button, she can be reminded of her best friend, who is missing her and thinking of her. And always here. Love you, Letta.
To the moon and around the sun. Happy birthday.
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