The day you find out your best friend is moving four hours away is probably one of the worst things to a thirteen-year-old. Even worse than that is the day you realize the two of you are drifting apart, and you feel completely alone. I'm not saying all of this to be depressing, pessimistic, or resentful toward the friend this happened with, but more as hope for the future. If something like this has happened to you, hold on to the hope that once you are older you may yet reconnect, and be all the better for it.

We had grown up together thanks to our parents and both being pastor's kids. From the age of about three, we did a lot together. Plenty of time was spent playing and having sleepovers, after which we would hide and hope our parents wouldn't find us and drag us back to our respective homes. Naturally, as best friends we had our moments and the older we got the more we fought, and always reconciled. But mostly we were inseparable, I vaguely remember once being called the Bobbsey Twins. If the two of us were in the same place we were probably together. Then the move came.

It was a normal sleepover, or so I thought, until they broke the news they were moving to a different church in Maryland. We made plans to see each other and be at camp together and to make sure we would write or visit as much as we could. Now I'm grateful for what our parents put up with and wish I hadn't complained as much when she and I couldn't be driven all the way to visit each other for a weekend. Sadly, for us, we began to drift apart and find other friends closer to us. A lot of resentment began to grow in me because I always wanted to keep the friendship there, but it seemed as if we almost weren't friends anymore. I had to deal with that resentment for a long time, until I realized how wrong it was to be so mad when neither of us could really help it. That's when the healing began.

Around the age of seventeen or eighteen we began to reconnect, heal some of the hurts that had been caused by either one and grow together again. I think it still took some time for us to fully reconnect, but by the time we were twenty we had our friendship back. Now, by no means is it exactly what it was before, but we do have a unique sort of friendship because of how long we've known each other and what we dealt with. There are few people I trust more, and it's nice to know she's always there for me. This is only a small bit of the story she and I shared, but I hope it is an encouragement to you and note of thankfulness for her and our experience.