Everyone pictures girlhood starting early in life. Having sleepovers with your friends in middle school, talking about the boys you like, having inside jokes and just having a group of girls that you do everything with. That wasn’t really me.
In high school, I’d hoped to find my group of ‘girls’. I had one close girlfriend. We did everything together: sit with each other at lunch, distract each other in class and stay up late on FaceTime. Throughout our senior year of high school, something shifted. We started to argue and bicker. We eventually grew apart and the way it ended still stings. By high school graduation, we didn’t speak to each other and still don’t.
I’d like to think losing that friendship set me up for meeting all the amazing girls I know now. In college, I got so lucky. My completely random roommate and I just clicked. I started to have the experiences I missed out on in middle school and high school. We stayed up late talking to each other about whatever popped into our heads, had inside jokes that no one else understood and obviously had a very long sleepover. My roommate, Ellie, was the proof that girlhood could exist for me, too.
Ellie showed me girlhood could exist for me, but I didn’t expect to find it again in an airport. I met Morgan at the airport on our way to study abroad for two weeks in France. Neither of us knew anyone else on our trip. We were standing in the airport, and she turned to me and said, “Do you want to grab some food?”. Naturally, I said yes because I was starving. So, we walked around the airport, grabbed food and started chatting at the gate. I knew instantly that I wanted to be her friend as soon as she said, “I don’t believe in TMI.” We spent every single day of the trip together, and not once did we argue or fight.
When I was having a low-energy day, she brought her A-game. When she was having a low-energy day, I did the same. Throughout the trip, she would tell me that in the fall I should come and hang out with her friends, and I just thought that was one of those things people say to be polite. But not with Morgan. When we got back to school in the fall, Morgan was blowing up my phone, asking me when I was going out with her friends. I am now a part of her friend group and have met other incredible girls I get to call my friends.
To this day, we talk about how our lives would have been so different if we hadn’t met each other. She said something to me the other day that really stuck with me. She told me that we made so many amazing memories during our trip, but the best souvenir we brought back was each other.
I lost one friend and found many. I’m learning both are part of the story. So, I am living proof that girlhood looks different for everyone and finds you when you least expect it but need it most.
