A friendship like this

She messaged me last week to find out if I would be available on Monday. They were coming home and wouldn’t it be fun to hang out?

For her, I would drop anything and go around the world even if I only got to simply say hello.

Alysia and I have been friends since before preschool. She was my person before I even knew what it meant to have a person, or be someone else’s person. I feel so lucky to know friendship like that.

We couldn’t be more opposite. Even as little kids, she loved blue and I loved pink; she wanted to wear pants and I only would wear dresses. After college, we found ourselves on opposite coasts, her on the west and me on the east. We figured out what we were supposed to be when we grew up, and literally became the artist and the scientist…and yet we still can talk until well into the middle of the night about life and the things we actually do have in common, like eating whole foods, Pixar movies, our adorable pets, our love of personality tests, and, best of all, our memories of growing up together.

After drinking wine on her parent’s deck, laughing and eating guacamole and double chocolate chip cookies (not at the same time), we took advantage of the late evening sun and walked around the neighborhood where we played as kids…even back then she was willing to jump fences to explore, while I was more content to be safe inside and out of trouble. For pushing me out of my comfort zone, I will always be grateful, because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be doing what I am today if she hadn’t been my example of listening to the call of the world and following your wildest dreams.

We took some new photos so that she’d have some for work, but of course, we did some just for fun too. She’s always been a lover of the sun, and it’s taken me all these years to understand why.

No matter where life takes the two of us, I hope we never stop being able to pick up exactly where we left off. My life is infinitely better because of a friendship like this.