Forever friends are hard to come by. You think you have met a friend for life and then life changes. Whether it be that you have changed work places, transferred to a new school, discontinued a hobby you once loved doing, or just drifted apart, no matter the circumstance, it still flat out sucks.
My forever friends came into my life in first grade. It is not so much that we picked each other but landed in each other's laps when we were selected to be at the same elementary school. “Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other,” Paulo Coelho so truly states. From then on the four of us were inseparable. Looking back, I am not sure how we stayed friends for the past 20 years. Throughout the years, we have changed and molded into our own beings and the four of us could not be any more different. We even have a nickname for the four us: Square. Being there are four of us, we had our phases, we would cling to one another, and not hang out with the other two, but they were also doing the same thing. I do not think it ever hurt the others' feelings because we knew that we would always end up together.
Flash forward to the day one of us left for college. It was like a train hit us. The feeling of emptiness engulfed each one of us. We hadn’t been truly separated from one another in eleven years. It was no doubt going to be a change. The other three of us went to our local community college. The dynamic of our group definitely changed; we became closer with another friend we have known since middle school. But of course, when our friend from school was home it was the five of us. We could not have had more fun in a first two years of college without each other.
Without any warning, one member of Square told us she was going to move to Hawaii with her boyfriend who she had only known a couple of months. This was a complete shock to everyone. All these questions consumed my mind. Why would she leave us? Does she even know this guy? How is she going to afford living on her own? What do her parents think? I was heartbroken. The dynamic of our friendship once again was changing. I did not know how to handle all of it.
Of course, with only two of us left, we clung to each other. Or I might have done the clinging. We ended up moving in together since we both transferred to the same school close to our home. Without her friendship, love, and support I do not think I would have gotten through college. I am not even sure she realizes the impact she had on my life during that time. “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” --Helen Keller
Even though the four of us were not together, we could pick up where we left off at any given time. I am not sure how we stayed friends for so long, we were so mean to each other, always blew each others' spots up (at the worst times), argued like we were old married couples, but somehow the universe knew we needed each other and never gave up on us.
Fast forward to the present, we all lead completely different lives. I recently started to feel that maybe all friendships are not meant to last forever. I felt disconnected from them, left out almost. Maybe we had just come to a point that we were completely different people and we could not connect on any level anymore. Luckily, our one friend, who still lives in Hawaii, was coming home. If the four of us had not been reunited I do not think that my feelings would have changed. Being together again in our same, familiar setting, it felt like time had stood still and waited just for us. I never felt more connected and rejuvenated in our friendship than in that one moment we had together. Standing in a circle hugging each other, I think it brought tears to all of our eyes. If they had only known how much that tiny insignificant moment, to some, mattered the most to me. In that moment in which we held longer than one had anticipated, I realized that it did not matter how often we talked or how long, what mattered was if I needed them they would be there in a heart beat.
Forever friends are hard to come by, but when they do, do not let them go.
