I am 22-years-old, though a lot of my friends let me say I am 16, sometimes I act like I am 3. I come from a family of two brothers and no sisters, though I always wanted a younger one – why younger and not older I do not know. And I grew up with a desire for one thing, a best friend.
Yet, by the time I was 20 I had given up on this. By then I had had many “friends” who I thought would be my friends for years and years. Yet, slowly, one by one, they vanished – most were pen-pals – and I have not heard of them since though I have tried to contact them.
Sure, I'd read about people who had best friends, but I was starting to think it was just a thing from books. Like fairies. Aside from my cousins I was certain no one was going to want a shy, quiet, day dreamy girl for a friend. Many girls I knew had tried to talk to me but I was awkward and never knew what to say. My hope had come from writing to girls, yet now they were leaving me. Best friends? Ha! In your dreams maybe.
Then one day I met a talkative, tomboyish, romantic girl and we hit it off – once again as pen pals. Yet this time I met the girl, and we stayed friends! Hope came to me at last! 20 and finally I had a best friend, or so I thought. Yet, something happened. What, I may never fully understand. But we are not as close now. You may think I am back in the pits – or is it depths? - of despair.
However, I am not. Why? Because of Katie.
Yes, I met Katie online through a blog. At the time she was 13 and I 20 though I thought nothing of the age difference. All we had in common was Lord of the Rings and writing. And at the time we both thought our friendship would never be close. We have known each other for two years, we have been best friends for a year at most.
What changed? How can we possibly be friends? After all, there is no possible way we could get more different if we tried. I guess my point in all this is is that friends are hard to find, even harder to keep. I will admit that for the first 21, 22 years of my life I was a selfish brat. Even now I am working on that. And now I can safely say that Katie and I would not be as good a friends as we are if I had not been working on that.
One of the keys to having a friend is being one. Were I to only talk about myself, my troubles, my woes, my joys as I used to with other friends I would have lost her as well. A friend is to rejoice with her friend, weep with her friend. I, like all of us, must take time in Katie, listen when she has troubles, encourage her, build her up, not down. After all, we are walking to Heaven aren't we? We might as well go together. As it says in the Bible, Two are better then one. When one falls the other can help him up.
I have learned the key to having a friend is to being one. And daily I am learning how to be one – it is never ending, but it is well worth it!!
~Heather
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