Every friendship starts out with a story. Some stories are weirder than others, but some have a heart felt meaning. Some friendship stories just flat out don't make sense.

Throwback to my good ole elementary school days at my Alma Mater, Ellisville Elementary. In the fourth grade, I (thought) I was pretty stylish.

OK, some people thrive at different times in their lives. But, with my glorious wardrobe, I had this favorite shirt. I remember buying it form Kohl's. I demanded to my mother that I wear it to school the weekend after I bought it. I wore that shirt and then a week later, a girl bought the same shirt! I was traumatized. This girl, Lexi, then became my worst enemy. It sounds really petty but, I was in the fourth grade. I swore to never be friends with her.

Flash forward to Senior year of high school. In my choir class, we always celebrated birthdays. My sworn enemy all through elementary school, middle, and high school and I had conveniently shared a birthday. We were all friends in that class so I didn't really care too much at that point in my life. So we decided to take a picture together.

Little did we know that this spur of the moment picture would turn into a life-long friendship. A few weeks later, our newspaper published a story on Lexi and her experience with her mom's battle with breast cancer. I grabbed that newspaper and ran to class to show her!

She immediately burst into tears. So being the good friend, I brought her to the bathroom to let her calm down. Later to find out that she said, "I never cry in front of people!" As cliche as it sounds, I knew we had a budding friendship. We started talking about our lives, eating lunch together, complaining about school, and basically being attached at the hip. We had so much in common! Why had we hated each other?

A few weeks ago, we finally were sitting down and we realized why we hated each other all through school. Because of that darn polka-dotted shirt.

Now, that we're older and more mature, we are best friends. We were twins that God split up because he knew that our mothers would drive themselves crazy. She became an intricate part of my family (i.e. the favorite child or Aunt Lexi Lou) and I became a part of hers. To this day, I can't imagine myself without this wonderful women or how I managed to live my life without her.

So Lexi Lou,

I love you with all my heart. You are my best friend, my partner-in-crime, my twin, and so much more. Thank you for being a strong, role model for me. You are always there for me (even when I don't want you to be) and I couldn't ask for a better friend. Lori was definitely looking for someone to challenge you when she put me into your life. So thanks for being my everything and more!

P.S. I'm older and always will be by 4 hours.