Friends

I'm leaving in the morning for St. Louis to help one of my best friends move. She and I have been friends since college and are sort of an odd fit. We look nothing alike, act nothing alike but yet we're always there for one another.

Like I said in my previous post, I'm thinking back over the last 29 years of my life. Thinking about this friend reminds me of my very best friend growing up. We met in elementary school and parted ways after high school. I honestly think we were immediate best friends. I don't have many childhood memories where she wasn't around. We played at school, went through Brownies together, stayed at each other's houses and talked on the phone like our big sisters did. Now you want to talk about two different people. That was me and Onieka. We definitely did NOT look alike and are personalities were rather different as well. Although I'll admit that I was a bit more reserved back in those formative years. (Not really sure what happened to me.)

I grew up with a Daddy that was a team roper so we always had horses around. We all hunted so we always had a ton of bird dogs around. And Sis was a sucker for cats so we ended up with a bunch of them as well. Onieka, on the other hand, was scared of every single aforementioned animal. I can remember walking out of our school and a stray dog being on the sidewalk and she would have a panic attack and hide behind me until I shooed it away.

I played sports and she didn't but we were always partners at field day. We could make one heck of a wheel barrow team. She was a middle child and I was the baby. The list truly goes on and on. But you know what...none of that mattered to us. We didn't realize we were all that different. We just liked to hang out and have fun. We really were the best of friends right up until high school. Then for some reason it seemed that our differences seemed to matter a little more. She was crowned our Senior Homecoming Queen and even though we seldom talked I was so stinkin excited for her. She looked beautiful up there with her crown on. Just like when we would play dress up all those years ago.

I haven't seen her since we graduated but I ran into her mom and sister at the fair this summer. Her mom told me she had two little girls and was loving life. You know, God has a funny way of bringing two people together who the world would generally decide don't belong together. I'm sitting here tonight saying thank you to Him for bringing both of these girls into my life. I will forever cherish the memories I have with Onieka and know that H and I will make many more in the years to come. Good friends don't come easily for me so I know that I should always cherish the time I have with them.

Thanks girls for loving me for me, then and now.