Kindred Spirits

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I was blessed to spend an evening chatting with one of my dearest friends, Emily. We have one of those relationships that's so hard to describe, but if you have a friend like her, you totally understand. 

Emily and I grew up as principal's kid and teacher's kid. We lived at school. We made up games. We buried secret notes in the church landscaping and dug it back up a year later. We made a fort in the trees. We secretly graffitied with Sharpies the crawl space beneath the bleachers. 

Emily is the kind of friend everyone needs. The friend that upon hearing about your death will immediately go to your home and destroy every journal and poor writing sample you own. She's the person you call when you can't think of another single word to add to your creative essay--and you're 700 words short--and panicking that you won't graduate. She's the kind of friend that will never judge you for ordering a Big Mac. With a side of fries. And two pies. And maybe a second Big Mac. 

Emily lives in Texas now, which is why our weekend chat was so special. We spent a few hours at McDonalds, and then a few more hours at our house. We discussed theatre, alcohol, writing, evolution, homosexuality, and baby names--you know, typical things. What's so interesting about how deep the conversation was, is that it really wasn't that strange for us. We've been talking about deep things since we were in fifth grade. It's who we are and how we've always related to each other. Despite the fact that we haven't had a conversation in several months, we just picked up exactly where we left off. Somewhere between Get Over It and Genesis. 

I'm always so inspired to write after a conversation with her. Or at least to start something new. If I can't make any progress on my book (or maybe it's just a short story), at least I have a few blog topics for the next few days. I hope Emily feels the same because she's such a fantastic writer. She really should have her own blog. That way I can keep up with the fabulous book she's working on.

I think it's probably pretty rare for most people to have your best friend when you're 10 be the same person who's you're best friend when you're 25. I feel incredibly lucky to be one of those rarities.