Boon Companion

Have you ever had someone in your life that transcended mental understanding? Someone who just gets you and accepts you for all that you are? I have been afforded the privilege of having someone like that in my life. Growing up for me, I was never stationary for too long in one place, with my father and mother divorcing when I was somewhere around 4 or 5. I came to know life within the confines of a split household. And so my brother and I would travel back and forth from Texas and Arizona every year. I was born in AZ but attended Elementary and Jr. High in Texas.

In Texas, I went to three Elementary schools M. Walton Elementary and Souder Elementary, which was in Ft. Worth. Then in the middle of 5th grade, my dad bought a home in Arlington, and we uprooted from Fort Worth, and I attended Speer Elementary for the rest of the 5th and 6th grade.

The Jr. High school I attended was at Nichols Jr. High after the end of my 8th-grade year, I moved to AZ permanently to live with my mom.

Even though I had spent every summer in AZ, the living experiences were about the same as they were in TX. My mother lived in both Tempe and Mesa throughout our visits, and so just like in TX, I never made lasting friendships. I was always the new girl. When I attended High School at Temp High, we moved from Tempe to Phoenix, where my mom bought a home. And it’s here where I finally began to establish somewhat of a normal life.

This is where I met the person who would become my best friend. I tell her all the time that I stole her from her then best friend because when I came on the scene, and she and I clicked so well she wasn’t allowed to call anybody her best friend but me(insert serious face and laughter). She is the complete opposite of me while I am moody, short-tempered, always ready to fight, and be down for whatever. She is mild-mannered, even-tempered, easy-going and the most generous loving person you would ever meet.

While most shun away from my personality or try to match my strong personality with more fire, she welcomes who I am and calms my rage just by being present because her calmness makes it easy to be cool and just chill. Her friendship is one that I cherish with my life.

When I uprooted myself again and moved from AZ to NC and lived there for an amount of time 15 yrs to be exact, we lost touch for many years, but when we did reconnect, it’s as if time never lapsed.

When I moved back to AZ, she went full speed into claiming her title as a best friend and always making sure I am good even when I don’t want her to(because I’m hard-headed). But she isn’t just like this with just me; she is like this with everyone she meets. She is a rock to many people; she is strong and centered. A person that can be trusted, and I love her for that. I love that she just gets me, all of me. Even when I’m not speaking, she understands, when I go into my shell, she understands. When I tire from being social, and she spreads her limbs to others and I want no part of the interaction she understands. I’ve lived my entire life in unstable circumstances, and honestly, it wasn’t until I met her that I knew what friendship was.

Have her, and I had disagreements, of course, friendship-authentic friendship embodies disagreements, that’s when you know it’s real. For we aren’t perfect, and we both have our flaws me so more than her. But even when we disagree, there has never been an extreme fall out. I believe that everybody should have someone in their life that accepts them for all of them and remain without wavering. I don’t like titles, and it’s hard for me to call people a friend, so to be crowned a best friend in my book is a top honor. Mainly because I have a hard time trusting people, and maybe it stems from my upbringing, but when I do trust, I hold on to those people for dear life.

A 20 plus friendship is one to cherish because it is a friendship that has remained through time, through growing up and changing individually from marriages to divorces to kids and hectic schedules. As introverted and to myself, I am where I will fall off the face of the Earth and get ghost quick where no one can find me; she will always be one that I will come out of hiding for.