A Post for a Dear Friend

Brittany,

Congratulations!  I don't remember when we became adults.  I was thinking back on our friendship: how did a witty musical cellist become friends with a nerdy tone-deaf swimmer?

I remember seeing you for the first time in 7th grade in Mrs. LaFlamme's class.  Our first seating chart was alphabetical, so Lauren Eddington was in front of me, and you were on the other side of the classroom.  Our lovely English teacher made us do some type of speed-dating-get-to-know-you activity, so I did talk to you in those first days in middle school.  I also remember being impressed with your vocabulary skills--you were constantly finding movies that had characters say one of the current vocabulary words.  One of the first ones you shared was from Shrek.  The vocabulary word was "orthodox."  The scene you showed was after Shrek saved Fiona, she talked about something being "unorthodox."  I thought you were so cool for watching Shrek, especially since our friend Amber highly disapproved of that movie because of the flatulence.

7th grade was also the year of 9/11.  We got to write essays about it in English.  Yours had a cool quote from Big Bird.  I was jealous of how smart you were to use quotes.

I remember in 8th grade, I didn't see you much: we had only one class together in Mrs. Abercrombie's.  We had to come up with a flag and a cheer for our group--we were in the North for the Civil war.  I made the flag, and you came up with the cheer: *clap* "Slavery: not cool--cruel."

Ninth grade is when we really hit it off.  We have the Beatles, math, and Mrs. Yates to thank for that.  We finally started realizing that we were oddballs in middle school, and that's ok.  We'd meet in the library before school started, got excited about Redwall and did math homework.  We would talk about current events--I still remember the morning after they found Elizabeth Smart.  We were so happy--it'd been so long, and we thought she was never going to be found.  We made fun of all the girls who would hang pictures of their celebrity crushes in their lockers.  I decided to put pictures of Pippin up in mine (the popular celebrities were Legolas, Draco Malfoy, Zac Efron, etc.).

When the weather got warmer in the spring of 9th grade, we'd take walks outside, and talk about our plans and the future.  I can't remember what we planned.  I do know that my life has never gone as I planned, and I'm perfectly ok with that!

High school/college-we went to different high schools, but still managed to hang out on weekends, talking through the night.  I love that we can talk about anything and everything.  I love that even if we don't see each other in a year, we just pick up right where we left off.

Brittany, I've never seen you so happy and content as I've seen you today.  Your wedding was beautiful.  In the short time I've known Peter, I know he's wonderful.  I'm so glad you two found each other.

I know you're worried that you might become "one of those couples" that never really interact with their single friends again.  I'm here to tell you, no worries!  I'm still here, and whenever you want me to come hang out, I'm down!  We've been friends for a long time.  And we'll be friends for a much longer time hence.