I met my lifelong friends — Zoe, Reese, and Faith — when I was four years old. Growing up, I never reflected on quite how lucky I was to have them; I didn’t register how rare it was to enjoy true, loyal companions without ever suffering the pains of drama (okay, maybe there were a few petty squabbles when we were young, but the kind of stupid, fleeting, completely unserious fights you get in with a sibling). However, as the years progressed, I have come to understand what a gift it is to share such a lasting bond with not just one, but three people, the kind that allows us to start on the same page we left off on when we last saw each other, to share anything and everything, to laugh and playfully make fun of each other, to randomly text or call about the most bizarre or out-of-the-blue events in our lives, and to always be there for one another in support or comfort. So, in this article, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for each one of these amazing girls, discuss our unique friendship, and the journey we have shared as friends.
Original photo by Patti Rogers
Zoe
I have a very distinct memory of becoming friends with Zoe. We were in kindergarten, and the whole class was on the playground for recess. I was running around, playing a game with another girl, and I came across Zoe and one of her friends on the jungle gym. I began talking with her, and before I knew it, we were inseparable. Many of our teachers even thought we were sisters because we were always together, and we shared the same blonde, curly hair.
Zoe was the friend I had with me for the entirety of lower school and middle school. We went through all of our awkward junior high phases together (which we love looking back on now), and we supported each other as we faced the universal struggle of trying to figure out the people we wanted to become as we grew up.
When we decided to attend different high schools, I was terrified to lose the person who had stuck with me while many of our friends moved to various middle schools, to not see the girl who I sat with at lunch and hung out with at every break every day, to not have my best friend by my side as I entered a ginormous, life-changing stage. Surely enough, the first couple of years of high school posed struggles for both of us (especially since COVID hit during the latter half of our freshman year), however, whatever happened, we could always still text, call, or hang out with each other whenever.
As high school progressed, both of us found close friends, with whom we are both close to today, and our anxiety receded. We didn’t hang out quite as much as before, but that didn’t mean that we weren’t close or that we weren’t friends with each other, by any means. We each simply were growing into our own persons and growing close to people who were growing with us. And isn’t that what’s great about a friendship like this? The people involved are able to fully be themselves, traverse the unique paths to their future, and develop bonds with others while still remaining connected by an undiminished, powerful bond.
Growing up, I always thought of Zoe as a kind of sister — and again, even our teachers thought we were — and I am so fortunate to have experienced such a deep level of connection and understanding and to have preserved such a bond. I am also so thankful that I have someone who I can reflect on bizarre childhood memories with, and I am so glad that it is Zoe, as she is truly amazing and hilarious, and I cannot imagine my life without her.
Reese
Where do I begin with Reese? There wasn’t quite as much of a clear, lightning-bolt moment in which our friendship was conceived as there was with Zoe, but I do know that Reese and I had always been friends in lower school. To be honest, I can’t even remember how our friendship developed into what it is now, but I do know that Zoe, Reese, and I all grew closer at some point, and we started having playdates together.
Reese, however, would unfortunately leave us in the fourth grade to attend a different school, becoming the first of several of my close friends who would leave during the course of primary school. I remember feeling sad that Reese was leaving, but at that point, I still had other close friends with me, so I didn’t feel horribly abandoned.
While Reese and I were friends in lower school, in my memory, it didn’t seem like it was until high school that we truly strengthened our bond, even though we attended different institutions. We began hanging out with just each other (as opposed to in groups) more frequently, not that we didn’t hang out with Zoe and Faith often, and we developed our own distinct, silly bond.
Reese and I possess two very different personalities, interests, and tendencies, and that is perhaps what makes our relationship so fun. We sometimes ask the question of whether we would have become friends if we had met in high school or college, and truly, it’s hard to say. But in spite of our dissimilarities, we never fail to make one another smile. We respect and are able to laugh at each other’s attributes and passions, even though they may be baffling to the other person, while supporting one another’s goals.
I am extremely grateful for Reese’s contagious joy and energy, humor, caring nature, and perhaps most importantly, her ability to quote Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” word-for-word. I look forward to many more coffee and pastry dates, picnics, and competitive Twister games with my friend.
Faith
I have never met anyone quite like Faith, and I mean that in the best way possible. She is boldly confident, amazingly unafraid, and wonderfully, unapologetically crazy (and again, I mean that in the best way possible), and I admire her so much for it.
Similarly to Reese, there wasn’t one singular moment in which Faith and I became close friends. All I remember is that Zoe and her played volleyball together in lower school and became close, and so we all started hanging out together.
Unfortunately, Faith would leave us to attend another school not long after Reese, which was an especially difficult loss, especially since she constituted the second close friend that I had lost during grade school. However, similarly to Reese, Faith and I, and all four of us together, would hang out during middle school and high school over the weekends, and we would all text and call each other.
I truly treasure Faith’s obsession with sharks, wild stories, bold humor, carefree and enthusiastic energy, and confidence in herself. Being with her is always such a fun, invigorating experience, and every outing with her feels like an adventure. She inspires me, someone who is afraid of everything, to have more self-assurance and step outside of my comfort zone.
A final thanks to my amazing lifelong friends
I am boundlessly grateful for Zoe, Reese, and Faith. These friends have been with me through every high and low, and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them. Looking forward, I am excited to see how our friendship continues to grow and transform as we work to create our futures.