Life In The Oyster

Old Friends

In my short life, I have had many people I called Best Friend.

First, there was Melissa. We were friends before we started school, and becoming best friends was a decision we made while hiding in a closet one afternoon. A couple of months later, she moved to west virginia. We were too young for the telephone, so I went to her birthday party. And that was the last time I really saw her besides weddings and funerals until she was eleven or twelve and had cancer. I went to visit her in the hospital and we played Trouble. Then I saw her once a year at a picnic, but she stayed with her family and I with mine. I'm not very good at striking up conversations in person.

Then, there was Ameris. She and I and Karina were good friends for a couple years. From third to sixth grade or so. But she started public school and became busy with swimming and volleyball, and I moved fifty miles south. I guess the phone worked for a while, but school brings new friends, that you can see, and I was forgotten. Karina moved back to Australia. I didn't like to go to her house after the incident where her older brother found out I had a gigantic crush on him.

Nicole and Ameris overlapped a bit. They both came to my tenth birthday party. She and I have known eachother since she was born. Our parents are friends, and we'd been in the same circle at church since forever. She was the person I talked to when my mom was in the hospital. She was the one who encouraged me to do my hair and wear girls clothes.

At the same time, I was good friends with Rebecca, because she and I were in the same grade and therefore the same sunday school class. We didn't talk on the phone often, but we spent many sunday afternoons at her house doing I can't even remember what. That kind of stopped though, after I punched her because of something she said to my little sister. Totally my fault.

Nicole and I were friends even after she went back to school. But then her family started going to a different church. I guess I must have been fourteen at least.

Then, I met Jacob. I think that he's known me best out of all my friends, barring sisters. The first year I knew him, it was only at homeschool group, until the summer. Then, me being the internet junkie that I am, we started emailing eachother. Like, all the time. I mean, once or twice a day. Now there's a way to get to know a person. The next school year, we were on the same Odessey of the Mind team, in the same writing class, in the same plays, and worked together in Mock trial. Odessey of the Mind required not only the thursday two period class practice, but also a meeting on Mondays at his house. In any case, we got to know eachother pretty well. I guess he was like a brother, in the sense that he could tell what I was thinking, the way my sisters can. Then, I went to Europe for two months one summer, and wasn't there when things started happening, then he wouldn't talk about them, and when I did learn about them, I didn't agree with him. He got busy with school, I got a job, we started thinking about things and didn't see eye to eye. Then I graduated and we didn't talk anymore.

It seems like some people are made to be memories.

posted by Marguerite @ 8/27/2006 11:39:00 PM