My best friend attends college 1,394 miles away from me. To be honest, I’m not even sure if best friend even comes close to describe how much Morgan means to me. She’s like a sister and will always have her own special spot in my heart.
You know those people in your life that you know for a fact are in your life for a purpose? The first person you want to call to talk to when something bad or exciting happens to you? That one person that just thinking of makes you laugh because you have the best times together? Morgan is my person. She’s my sister in Christ and life would be extremely difficult without her.
We grew up together in church but lived in different towns. I didn’t get to see her too often but she was still incredibly important to me. When it came time to decide where to go to college, hearing that she was being called to Mississippi was not what I expected to hear. We had distance between us before but only a 20 minute drive. Hearing that she would be a 20 hour drive away didn’t even make sense. I couldn’t process that our distance was reality and that I would have to learn to have distance separate us.
Freshman year of college wasn’t at all what I expected. If anything I found myself and who I am than meeting other people. The best part about the year was how close Morgan and I got. We would text all the time about everything and I felt like I was at school with her. When we were at our work studies we would talk on the phone and hear all about how life and college was. Some of my favorite nights from that year were the nights where I skyped with her and our friend Heather and we just talked and laughed like we were all together back home. We were still there for all the laughs and cries that occurred. Everyone says you grow out of and lose the friends you had in high school, but not us, she’ll be my number one forever.
The semesters flew by and I found an upside to her being at school in the south. School starts earlier down there, so she would start and end classes before I did. Who would have thought that both semesters, her flight back home would be the night before my dance recitals. She was in the crowd both times watching me dance my heart out.
Now all of this was great but the best news was to come. This past summer we both interned together at our church and got paid to spend time together. Well, obviously we got paid to do other tasks but spending so much time with my best friend was one of my favorite parts. I could write an entire series of the good times we have had together. We became inseparable and an intense team. Everything was Morgan and Lizziey and I absolutely loved that. Summer always comes to an end though and it was time to go back to school. You would think we got pretty good at communicating so school would be fine this year. The hardest part about sophomore year so far has been feeling incomplete without my other half. I realized I didn’t know how to be just Lizziey anymore. After so much time of being Morgan and Lizziey, just Lizziey didn’t seem right anymore. Telling this to Morgan, it was comforting to know that she had been feeling a very similar way but she said one of the most encouraging things I have ever heard.
“We are still a team. We just have to learn to be a team with distance”
And that was exactly what I started to do. With all we have been through and how close we have become over the years, distance doesn’t scare me anymore. She is one of my favorite people in the entire world and we will continue to grow together, side by side.