The other day, I was sitting in my childhood best friend's, Kate, front seat. She texted me that morning to ask if I could drive with her to TJMaxx and to run a few other errands. We went to our favorite coffee shop in her hometown and talked about our lives. We hadn't seen each other in almost 6 months and yet, like clockwork, we still picked up exactly where we left off.
Kate and I's friendship story is one of my favorites to tell, simply because it's hilarious. We were two years old and went to daycare together, and I definitely had a biting problem at that age. Kate had a pink crayon that I wanted, so instead of asking her for it like a normal person would do, I bit her thinking she would get scared and just drop it (which is what most of the other kids usually did). Instead, she decided to bite me back. I guess that gave me mutual respect for her courage and bravery because we've been friends ever since.
I moved away to Northeast Ohio, about a four hour drive from where I grew up when we were five after my parents got married. My mom's family lived where Kate did, so I would continue to see her most times I visited. We would spend a week together in the summer and have playdates to Reds games and the park by my grandparents' house. As we grew, our personalities and interests changed but some things just always stayed the same. We hit bumps and had arguments, a couple of times going months without talking, but always made up as soon as we saw one another. I drove down more often in our high school years and went to her senior homecoming and prom, while she drove up for my graduation. We always made time for each other when I was in town and were able to stay close.
Sitting in her car a few weeks ago, I told her about the hard things that have been going on in my life lately. I will hand it to her, Kate really knows when I need tough love. But after our discussion, I thought even more about how crazy it is that our whole lives, she has always known what to say, and almost always I do, too. We have gone through so many of the exact same situations coincidentally, happening just a few months apart from one another. We both were adopted by our stepdads after our parents got married, both have a sibling only a few months apart in age, and both had our parents separate within about a year of one another. Our whole life, when I've had heartbreak or hurt happen, her exact same situation has followed a few months later and I've always been there, ready to talk her through it.
Kate and I now go to colleges that are 328 miles apart (oddly enough I am now close to her hometown and she is close to mine) yet we still call each other when the other is in town and needs to make a grocery run. I am so lucky that I have someone who has grown up with me through the trials of my life and genuinely gets me. I hope everyone gets the privilege of having a Kate in their life, and I hope we get to be friends for the rest of our life. I know wholeheartedly she will be sitting next to me at my wedding reception because, after 17 years, some things never change.
