My best friend Loren and I have known each other since we were born- AKA, we were stuck together against our will. We went to K-12 together and were the only two of six girls from our junior high class to stick it out and make the two hour daily commute to our high school every day.

12 years of my life were spent going to school, basketball, and soccer practice, and after-school pool party play dates all with my best friend. Now, we haven’t always been best friends. In fact, there was a very large portion of our childhood that was spent with us despising the other. I liked American Girl dolls and had a close circle of girl friends who played tether ball and God knows what else at recess, and she was friends with two of my now best friends and all the guys in our small class of 30. It wasn’t until we both found a passion for soccer that we connected. She is probably one of the most athletic people on Earth and it always seemed to me that regardless of the sport we were playing, she just picked it right up and was amazing. Me on the other hand, loved soccer and sucked at just about everything else. So even early on, I looked up to her in that regard. Fast forward to middle school and we became close because we both felt like we were two total “non-drama” type of girls which is hilarious now because looking back we stirred up wayyyy more grief than we should have.

When we both decided on our high school, she would be following in her older sister's footsteps and I in my mom’s to “The Academy” as it is lovingly dubbed. We were so excited and made up all of these stupid ideas of what high school would be like as only 8th graders do. Freshman year history repeated itself and once again we had totally different interests. She was one of two freshman to make JV Volleyball, and I was the only freshman to be placed as a lead attorney for our school's Mock Trial team. Understandably, we made different friends but still had to carpool to and from school to see each other. We both tried out for soccer and I had been prepping for tryout all summer and working my butt off to be ready, and she had taken 8 months off and wasn’t even sure if she wanted to play. Day 1 of tryouts she automatically impressed the coaches and they knew she was a shoe-in for varsity. Luckily varsity was in need of a back- up goalkeeper and we both made the team together. During freshmen-sophomore year, truthfully, we weren’t the closest. We had soccer and bonded over that but admittedly she was the “cool” star volleyball player and I was discovering my passion for law and usually had my head in a book studying. I can admit now that I was jealous at times. Jealous of how good she was, jealous of how many friends she had, jealous of how much the upperclassmen adored her. I was one heck of a jerk and pushed her away. She was never about it. She never pushed back. She was always just there and I knew if I needed her she would be there for me.

Then came sophomore year and we got better at communicating and my stupid jealousy subsided, especially as we got into a good rhythm during soccer season. Then came the day that changed everything. Her dad who had a profound effect on my childhood and was probably just one of the most gregarious, kindest, pure- hearted people you will ever meet passed away suddenly from a heart attack. There are no words to describe the hole that he left, and just from a personal stance, he was always so supportive of my goals and aspirations in politics and the biggest lesson he taught me was to never let give up no matter how much crap people may give me. With his passing, came an unexpected blessing. I guess I realized that life is too damn short to care about how different we were, and at the end of the day, Loren had always been there and in any small way I could be there for her, I needed to step it up. Junior year we could drive ourselves to school instead of carpool with our parents and our morning routine consisted of coffee, country music, and driving beside the Pacific Ocean. Looking back, even though we were up at the crack of dawn to make our 24 mile commute and sat in traffic to do so, many of my happiest days were spent in our cars pretending like the outside world didn’t exist. We were each other's safe place.

Now the majority of our true relationship entails us arguing without end about basically anything and nothing relevant and laughing our heads off at the stupidest small things, as well as baking chocolate chip cookies which she always insists on making because she’s convinced mine always come out “flat,” and going for late night drives to watch the stars over the ocean. The amount of selfless acts she has made for me and her undying loyalty for me are unparalleled, even going so far as to skip school for my grandmother's funeral three days shy of the one year anniversary of her dad’s passing. I knew that if I were in her shoes I wouldn’t even have come close to being able to reciprocate the act, but that's the thing- she is literally the strongest person I know and will ever meet in my life. Her mental and physical strength coupled with one of the most compassionate hearts you’ll ever find, makes the amazing human being that is Loren Kelly Teter.

For college, once again, we set on very different paths. She to play Division I volleyball at San Diego State University, and me to take a break from California and attend Marquette to pursue a triple degree in Political Science, Spanish, and Social Justice. Our differences will honestly probably always outweigh our similarities but it will never matter. At the end of the day, she is my rock. She has been there through it all and has been my safe haven when I’ve needed one. I’ve needed that haven at many, many times, and the bottom line is that she’s my family. She knows that I would do literally anything for her and she would go to the ends of the earth for me. Are we anything close to a conventional best friend pair? Hell no! But we wouldn’t have it any other way. Besides, to me she’ll never be my “best friend”- she’ll always be my sister.