“Come up for the weekend!”
“FaceTime me in five minutes.”
“Oh my god, did you hear about…”
These are the common phrases I constantly hear from my hometown friends, their bodies sprinkled across the East Coast, but voices echoing in my head.
Three or 12 hours away, it can be hard to see them — hard to stay connected with them. But these are the girls that I lived nearly my whole life with; the ones who know all of me, and the me I’m still growing into today.
They’re a constant. A perpetual friendship and confidants I can always rely on.
Everyone always says they never see people they knew from high school, adamant to leave it all and everyone behind. And while I, too, did a mass unfollowing on graduation day of the people I disliked, I kept the ones closest to me in my heart.
While I’m living my new life with my beloved roommates, people I hold so close to my heart and know they’ve changed my life for the better in every way, my sweet soul sisters are always a phone call away.
They knew and loved me in my awkward stages. They’ve seen all my embarrassing moments, and I’ve seen all of theirs, and I think it’s very important to continue to grow your friendships from home. These are some of the only people in your life who will have known what it was like for you to get your first period to having your first kid.
I only have a little brother as a sibling, and while I love him so, so much, having a best friend by my side, ever since I can remember, made me realize how everyone needs a sister in their life. A girl best friend.
One of my closest friends from home, Eva, has always known exactly what I’m thinking, and vice versa. With one glance across the room or a one-word text, we’ve always been on the same page and immediately on the same wavelength. It’s something so special and rare to me that no matter how much time we spend apart, as soon as we’re going on a drive or watching a dumb TV show, it’s like no time has passed.
Only a few can make me laugh as hard as she does, but the thing is, she doesn’t even have to try to be funny. Neither of us has to. With one glance at her just zoning out or making an indiscernible noise, I’m dying of laughter until my ribs ache and my mouth hurts from smiling.
A quote from “Wuthering Heights” by Charlotte Brontë always appears in my mind whenever I think of Eva, and my other close friends from home.
“Whatever his soul is made of, his and mine are the same.”
Wutheirng Heights, by Charlotte Brontë
But, of course, I mean it in a platonic way and switching the “his” for hers. These are the people I’ve known forever, and who know me down to my deepest core, who have seen all sides of my life. Our souls are intermixed, weaving in and out of my being.
While I’m forming unbreakable bonds here at school, I’m grateful knowing I will always have her, Courtney, Caitlin and others back at home, always lending an ear to each other’s problems or celebrating each other’s accomplishments. Because to me, they are my soul sisters — bonds I can always cherish.