An Ode to Friendship

I will never forget meeting V. Ever. I can close my eyes and remember it like it was yesterday. We were in art studio during our first week at ASMS. She had on a red top and her endlessly long hair was half up-half down. We somehow struck up a conversation about how cool it was that ASMS had an art studio--I'd never worked with clay before. As I talked with her I realized we were both having the same profound experience molding a red lump of clay. She actually was pretty good at it as I recall, me...not so much.

People often ask me to describe V--"what is she like?" Its an incredibly difficult question for me to answer. She's just like me but completely different at the same time. I've come to the conclusion maybe we're opposite sides of the same coin. Or maybe two different outfits (me pants, her a dress) cut from the same fabric. She's beautiful, brazen, tough. She's had life experience. She's nursed an ailing parent--she's buried a parent. Yet she has somehow maintained an almost child-like exhuberance and lust for life. She's my biggest cheerleader. Most trusted confidante.

When I let my own fears and insecurities get the best of me and projected my crap onto her, our relationship crumbled from the top-down. We spent ~1 year as "frenemies" {LOL} but yet the foundation remained in tact. How can you not love a person who sees, acknowledges, and love who you are even before you do?

I've spent the past 2 years in a highly competitive academic environment trying to carve out a personal and professional identity and out of that experience I've questioned everything around me. One thing I've learned is that friendship is as solid as it is fragile. Few people are truly your friend which is somehow both a tragic and beautiful truth.

When I was a young girl I used to call anyone who seemed nice a "friend." I gave my friendship out like candy. And yet I hid myself from all my friends--allowing myself to be molded by what I thought people would "like." One thing I know for sure: if you have to hide, it ain't friendship.

So to conclude this shemotional post I'd like to thank V for seeing the good, bad & ugly and sticking around anyway. Here's to you, dear. :raises fictional glass of Moscato: