Everyone I know remembers how they met their best friend. My sister in law met hers in college. Most of my high school friends met theirs in high school. Even I met my more recent best friends there. But I don’t remember how I met my longest lasting best friend 10 years ago.

We bonded over a sport. A violent, bloody sport that we still have scars from. I can remember always looking forward to the next game because it meant I got to play with my new friend. As the years went by, we saw each other every summer. Most of those days I can’t remember specifics from but I remember I spent them with you. My memories pick up after our last three years as campers there.

We had our first and last fight during those years. It was about a boy. As it turns out, we would never have that problem again. During those years our age group split into a few cliques. The “popular” girls, and the quiet girls. We didn’t really fit into either. As the last years came around, we spent most of our time doing activities together. Unless it was sports. Then we got a little too competitive. It resulted in only one hospital visit, but quite a memorable one. (No one forgets the look on a nurses face when you tell her that you got hit in the head 8 times in a row.)

How we got to today, I will never know. The first years we spent without phones or the internet to keep us connected, yet we managed to stay connected anyway. I can only describe this as magic. After our time as campers ended we got closer, thanks to phones. We spent years holding each other up. From life changing events to mere high school drama, we dealt with a lot. We also each learned the same lessons, strangely near the same times. (Your ex-girlfriend and my ex-boyfriend managed to screw up one after the other.) On our last year at overnight camp, you were in my family picture and quite frankly you belong there.

I just want to say thank you for always being there for the last 10 years. (I still have no idea how we managed that.) All I can say that it took a special bond, some magic, and a Jewish day camp.