We all know the "drill" when it comes to friendship. With a lot of people you become friends for a season or friends for a reason - you are friends at a time in your life when it fits or a time in life when you are mutually dependent on each other. We have work friends, college friends, high school friends, childhood friends, study abroad friends, friends from when I lived ______, and the list goes on.
Lucky girl that I am I have friends in all those categories. :) But I also have forever friends, sister friends, people I have known for years who are more like family than friends. Growing up with three brothers wasn't always easy, so at the age of five I sought out a best friend immediately upon entering kindergarten. Eighteen years, infinite sleepovers, late-night chats, birthdays, Christmas-Day-what-did-you-get-for-Christmas phone calls, play dates, Girl Scouts, break-ups, make-ups, notebooks of back-and-forth middle school conversations, travels together, travels apart, visitng each other at respective colleges, and coffee dates later and Ilse is still my best friend. There are things about us that make us drastically different and unique, but she forever remains my person.
...I wish I had digital copies of our elementary school days but this will have to do. Bright-eyed-18-year-olds ready to take on the world...and probably terrified of living more than 5 minutes apart from each other.
So we went to college, learned a lot, and came home the next summer ready to reunite.
Visiting Ilse at Madison during senior year of college - Capitol dome in the background!
My going away party in July 2009.
December 2010.
In one week Ilse leaves for Uganda, where she will embark on her life-long dream of being a Peace Corps volunteer. Fresh off a year working for Ameri Corps in Madison, Wisconsin, there is no better person suited to go out into the world and try to make it a better place. Ilse is going to be working in education, helping to train teachers in Uganda to better their education system. Her creativity and amazing ability to relate to people are going to serve her so well and I cannot wait to read all about it on her blog. So check it out, wish her luck and notice how cool her header looks. ;) Also you should probably just start reading along because she majored in creative writing so her entire blog is pretty much hysterical.
Ilse - Go to Africa knowing that you are SO loved by your family, friends and everyone who meets you. Live you dream with all of the incredible passion you have. Experience new things, new places, new people, and immerse yourself in the Peace Corps. Love every second of every day that you spend abroad and then hurry up and meet me in Minnesota we can have 26-year-old play dates. :) Love you lady!!
2 comments:
So, so essential to have friends like this- love it.
Hi, I'm really into this post:)
You are my person. And somehow, even though we are fairly different human beings, we keep coming back for more! Not to mention that we tend to do insane things like leave the country for two years. 18 years of love. Touch.
Please come home immediately and help me pack. That's all.
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