Dearest first best friend,

We were 5 years old. Our parents had to sit in between us because we couldn't stop talking to one another. I like to think that most individuals feel this way about the first human they genuinely connect with. When you're 5 years old and you meet the girl with the Shirley Temple haircut and she tells you that she too has every Lizzie McGuire CD ever made, it's something akin to love at first sight.

Without a doubt, there was a lot I learned from you, oh dearest first best friend. For starters, who else was going to encourage me to try the food that my parents kept trying to make me eat? Little did they know that I only believed the calamari would taste good after hearing that it was your favorite kind of food. Not to mention, who else was I supposed to have matching hair styles with every day?

You filled my early years with precious memories, and the summers in between were nothing short of that as well. Without you, how would I have learned to torment boys? We played Barbie doll in your back yard until the time came when we had a better idea --harassing your brother. As fast as we could, we grabbed every Barbie doll in sight and threw them into your brother's room, running away before he would notice anything. It is innocent memories such as this one that helped me realize now as an adult how important friendship truly is.

When we as humans gain a friend, nay a best friend, for the first time, something in us changes. We are made immediately aware, even at that young age, how adventurously rewarding it is to go through life with another person at your side.

You were the first peanut butter to my jelly, the first Kit to my Kat, and the first step out of my comfort zone. I wouldn't know how much fun finger painting could be without you, and I certainly wouldn't have gotten so accustomed to seafood without your help. It is our little moments spent in the dawning of our pre-pubescent years that keep me hoping to one day find this beautiful innocence once again.

We're older now, and life isn't so easy. No more can our parents send us off to school at the beginning of the day with a lunch box in our hand and pencils in our backpacks and assume everything will be okay. Lunchbox days have turned into all-nighters in the library, school uniforms have turned into interview outfits, and the fifty cents we used to carry on our way to school for lunch money has somehow turned into a mountain of debt-a mountain by which we have no idea in the slightest how to maneuver. No matter the struggles life brings me, I will always be thankful for having you as my first best friend. You set the stage (and standards) high for all the rest, and not a day goes by that I don't treasure our first great years together.

Sincerely,

Your vacation bible school confidant