Sitting around with my girlfriends one day, I realized these girls love me in a way no guy ever will. The way we call each other in the middle of the night while were drunk, the way we support each other, the way we can spend hours laughing and talking like were thirteen again… these girls will forever have my heart. One day, one of them hugged me and said, “You know I love you right? More than any boy ever will.”
They listen to my doubts and dreams, they bring me up all the time and they know what I need when I don’t. They’re the ones I call “baby”, “babe” and “bae” on a regular basis. We make kissy noises on the phone and have determined that long distance friendships are as difficult as long distance relationships, because it is still a relationship. We cuddle on a regular basis, and there is no such thing as a phone call that is “too late.”
Sitting at a 24-hour diner with one of them on a Saturday night, we spoke almost exclusively in facial expressions and one word answers. We’ve developed our own language over the years. Almost eight years of memories, inside jokes and birthdays for each of us, and many more to come.
Instead of just pictures from nights out on the town, we have awkward middle school dance photos and pictures at our high school graduation.
Instead of just celebrating the big 21 with each other, we were able to celebrate the smaller birthday milestones that came before: 13, 16, 18, and soon enough (for the last of us,) 21.
Instead of just swapping stories about random guys met in bars or talking about that “one hot guy that we met that one time,” we call on the “remember when’s” of first crushes, first dates, first kisses, first loves and first heartbreaks. Instead of retelling stories of our high school glory days to new friends, we step back in time and say “Remember when this person did this?” or “Have you seen so-and-so recently? They got hot.”
We grew up together, and I’m grateful to have them by my side in this crazy thing we call life. I'm grateful for the memories that I've made with my college friends, but nothing can compare to the bond that I share with these two. Thanks for all the years of laughs, cheesy voicemail messages and long-distance love that you've supplied me with.
