Friends

Tuesday, November 8, 2011: In my job, I type or populate a date field for each report, and as today was November 8, every time it came up, I was reminded that today is one of my childhood girlfriend's birthday. She and I were best of buddies from first grade to 10th grade. We lived two houses from each other on the same street. We both loved to write stories and read books. We both loved to sing and play-act. We both loved to roller-skate and ride our cool banana-seat bikes. We both loved dolls, and one year (third grade, I think), Santa brought us both the SAME doll. We were in the same class in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. We chased the same boys on the playground. We copied each other's hairstyles and ordered eyeglasses that were similar. If we weren't in our own homes, we were together. We loved to walk to 7-11 and buy $0.10 candy bars. As we got older, we loved to ride our bikes the (seemingly) long way to the public library, where we'd scope out all the best books we longed to read. Sometimes, we went to the local bowling alley near the library. We'd take our hard-earned babysitting money - a couple of dollars, at least - and eat lunch at Taco Bell, where every menu item was $0.25. Imagine, a bean burrito, a taco, and a small drink for under $1! We went to movies and the swimming pool in the summer, when the heat index was over 100 degrees. We wore our shorts and sandals in the winter and celebrated the one time it snowed on Christmas Day! We played Hide 'n Seek with the other neighbor kids and put on "concerts" and plays in someone's garage. We made puppets from paper mache. We played Monopoly for hours. We played school and both dreamed of becoming "real" teachers someday.

I am grateful for these memories. I had a blessed childhood. I loved my friends and they loved me. I hope that someday, I can find this girlfriend and renew our friendship. The last I heard from her, she was fighting a brain tumor, but was making progress. She had fulfilled her dream of becoming a schoolteacher and was beloved among students and parents for her creative, kind, encouraging personality. She is still in my heart, though I unintentionally hurt her feelings once and she chose to give up our communications. I hope I can make it up to her someday.

I have wonderful friends today. They are a light in my life. The saying is true, that you find out who your true friends are when you go through a trauma or a tragedy. They're the ones who keep track of you, ask how you're doing, keep you in their thoughts and prayers. I'm afraid that's where I failed with my childhood friend. She was going through this terrible illness, and I was selfish with my time and energy. I could have called, I could have written, I could have done more to support her in her time of need. I have friends now who have been angels in my life through my illnesses. They show up on my doorstep with a little treat or a smile and put their arms around me. They write me notes of love and support and encouragement and tell me to stay strong. They pray for me, and I feel it. I know I could call any of them and they would come running. I am so grateful for friends. I hope that through my experiences this year, I can be a better friend, too. It makes a huge difference in the quality of our little lives to know there is someone around the corner who would do anything for you.