Spending time with friends has always been one of my absolute favorite things to do. Starting out at the elementary level, I always asked my mom to have playdates, go outside and play with the neighborhood kids and spend a vast majority of my time with other children. As I grew older, this continued and hanging out with my friends grew to become something I did even more. The mother of my best friend, Kathryn, started watching me after school because my parents worked. We lived two streets away, so I would always go there after school every day to play. This caused Kathryn and I to become inseparable. We did everything together, and I wish that wasn't as literal as it truly is. We were in every class together, played every sport together, loved every boy band and pop star together and even went to the bathroom together (TMI but IDC). From those moments on, I knew that Kathryn would become my ultimate best friend and the closest thing to a second sister that I would ever have.
As we went through most of our school years together, we added some more best friends to the mix. Emma lived another street away, so she would come over a lot too. Melanie lived in the cul-de-sac a few streets over on the opposite end of the neighborhood, so she joined the group as well. And lastly, but certainly the loudest, was Ellen, who lived pretty close to our middle school, so she also received a spot. Little did I know that these girls weren't going anywhere. Ever. They too played most of the same sports, went to the same schools and thoroughly enjoyed The Jonas Brothers and Jesse McCartney just as much as Kathryn and I did. Kathryn's house became the official hangout after school, where we would all grab a bag of Cheez-Its and a Diet Coke, and sit in our designated spots around the dining table to gossip.
Middle school was a weird time, filled with new friends, horrible brace faces filled with acne and lots of bullying. It was also the time when we decided it would be super cool to make the first letters of our names into an acronym, KETEM. We referred to ourselves as this, wanted everyone else to refer to us as this and never once thought about the affect it would have on our other friends who didn't really make the cut. Except one friend, Faith. Faith joined our group and she was able to get her "F" thrown in the middle, renaming us KEFTEM, which is what we still jokingly call ourselves to this day (honestly it's just me who still does it. Everyone else gets annoyed and hits me with an eye roll).
Our afternoons at Kathryn's, and occasionally other people's houses, continued for years, and I am proud to say it still happens, though we have traded in our Cheez-Its and Diet Coke for a much more mature and adult-like snack: pizza and Diet Coke. Our snack choices aren't the only things that have matured because surprisingly enough, we have also grown up a bit as well. From talking about the latest dating scandal of Taylor Swift to discussing our futures, from being the shoulders to cry on when one of our crushes doesn't like us back, to still being the shoulder to cry on when some guy takes three days to text back and from training bras and clog-style Birkenstocks to dress pants and blazers, we have all developed into intelligent, successful young women who will forever be young at heart.
This article is my biggest thank you to these girls. Thank you for never leaving like many of the other girls who have gone in and out of our lives. Thank you for showing me the true meaning of "sisters before misters." Thank you for keeping me on my toes as we are away at college and eagerly wait to hear the details about all the adventures you go through in our GroupMe. Thank you for never being afraid to ask me, "What are you wearing..." while laughing, but low key, judging. Just thank you. I wouldn't be half the woman I am today without you ladies having been there my entire life to shape me into who I have become. I know some people may disagree (and they are very wrong), but I have the best friends anyone could ever wish to have, and they are all mine forever, so I am sorry to everyone else and their mediocre friend groups. Just kidding. Kinda.
