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A best friend is someone who will always be there for you. Someone you can share secrets, laughs and memories with. Someone who loves the real you, who will help you up when you fall. There are ups and downs, but that's what makes friendship so real. I had one of these friendships with Sarah. Until one day it all came crashing down.
Sarah and I met in fourth grade on the handball. She had just moved from Indiana and we immediately hit it off. We both loved school and always finish our homework at the same time. Every day at school we'd talk about "Lizzie McGuire" and sometimes I would think about how similar our relationship was to Miranda and Lizzie's. We made up a dance to our favorite song and baked little corn cakes for our Colonial Fair at school. For two years, this joy continued. Once, we had an argument, but in fifth grade, arguments don't really mean anything. I could tell her anything and I knew she would keep it a secret. Sometimes I wondered if maybe we were sisters, separated at birth.
The summer after fifth grade, Sarah flew back out to Indiana. We kept in touch with emails and phone calls. All summer, I thought she would come back and we would get to share sixth grade together. As the summer came to an end, she hadn't mentioned coming back yet. A week before school, I mustered up my courage and asked her. The same hour, she sent a response, "No, I'm staying in Indy." I remember feeling so let down, so incomplete. What would I do without my best friend? Sixth grade started in a rush and before I knew it, I had almost forgotten about Sarah. I reconnected with old friends, started obsessing over make up and looked forward to Outdoor School. The following summer, I emailed Sarah for the first time. We sent page-long emails about our lives in our different states. I thought it was so cool that she got snow days, and she was jealous of how I was just an hour from the beach. Even though she wasn't with me, she was still there. To this day, we still talk over email. I still miss Sarah, but I've learned that I don't have to live next door to her to still be best friends.
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