Friendships have always been difficult for me. I am a person that needs deep conversation, the ability to be completely myself and knowing that I will be loved unconditionally. This kind of friendship is rare and difficult to find. It's taken me a long time to find a friend who has stood by me no matter what. I wrote a short children's story about my experiences with friendships, and I thought I would share it.

Once upon a time there lived a little girl who had trouble making friends. As a shy and quiet girl, she found it hard to talk to people that she didn’t feel comfortable with. The friends that she did have, she worked very hard to keep. She was always working hard to make sure that she played the games that her friends wanted to play, or watch the movies that her friends wanted to watch, or listen to the music that her friends wanted to listen to. The little girl wanted her friends to like her, and she would do anything to make them happy. But often, at the end of the day, the little girl would climb into bed and cry. She felt lonely and sad.

“What if my friends only like me because I do what they like?” she whispered to her stuffed pig. “What if they don’t really like me?”

She found it hard to tell her friends what she liked to do because she was afraid that they wouldn’t like her anymore. She was terrified of rejection. So one night, since she had no real friend to talk to, she decided she would talk to her best friend-- the only One who could really help.

“Please God, I just want a friend who will love me for who I am,” she said.

The next day, the little girl decided to kick her red ball around at the park. It was a beautiful sunny day, and kicking her red ball helped her get out her frustrations. She was so involved in her red ball, however, that she did not see the little boy who was suddenly in front of her. Both children fell to the ground.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t see you,” the little girl said.

The boy offered the girl his hand to help her up.

“No worries,” said the little boy with a smile. He picked up the red ball.

“Um… do you mind if I play with you?”

The little girl blushed and looked at the ground. She was extremely shy. Besides, she didn’t know this boy at all.

“Well, I suppose so.”

They played most of the afternoon, not really saying much to each other but keeping each other company. They agreed to meet again another day to play.

And they did. Soon they began meeting every day in the park. They played ball, they went swinging on the swings, they slid down the slides, they teetered on the teeter totter and they laughed and talked a lot. The little girl told the boy that pigs were her favorite animal, she liked to read on rainy days, she wrote stories about talking animals and she was extremely afraid of talking to strangers. She told him that she hated scary movies, but all of her friends wanted her to watch them. She also told him that she was afraid of the dark and that she cried whenever she found a crushed moth. And he didn’t laugh at her or tease her. Instead he told her that he liked her because she was different from other people. The little girl was elated. Had she finally found the friend that she had been praying for?

When summer turned into autumn, and autumn turned into frigid winter, the two decided that they could not return to the park for their daily playtime anymore. The little girl was sad. What if they couldn’t see each other until next spring?

One afternoon, the little girl received her answer. A letter had arrived for her. It was from the little boy. It said: “Hi! I know that the weather is getting cold and we can’t play at the park anymore. So, I wanted to invite you over to my house after school. Don’t worry--we don’t have to watch scary movies. My mom will make us some really good hot chocolate! I hope that you will always be my friend!”

And the two have been inseparable ever since.

The End