A Time of Innocence, a Time of Confidences

At what point do friends become old friends?

Thinking back on the ten years since I graduated high school, I came to a realization. It has also been almost ten years since I met some of the most important people in my life.

On my first day of college, I met Carrie. She spotted me before I spotted her. I was standing in line, with my mom and dad, in the lobby of the LaFarge residence hall waiting to collect my keys and she was right behind me. I remember I was wearing a Sarah McLachlan t-shirt and cut-off cords. She noticed my shirt and told me later that she was glad there was someone else dressed in something other than the freshman girl uniform. We soon found out that we would be living in the same suite in adjacent rooms. We became fast friends and by the third day of school had stayed up all night exchanging pasts.

Just a few days later, I met Tiffany in Chem I. We started out as study partners, but soon became more. (That sounds kind of racy. College co-eds becoming more that just study partners...I feel like Tiff would think that was funny!) Besides chemistry, Tiff and I had French together, where she introduced me to Chrissie. Interestingly, Tiffany and Chrissie had met when they were little, even though Tiff lived in north Jersey and Chris was in Maryland. A family friend of Chrissie's lived near Tiffany, and they didn't even realize that they already knew each other until a few months after we had all become pals.

Finally, Chrissie introduced me to Katie, who had been in her freshman orientation group. I was so jealous of those two, because my freshman orientation group was composed of people priming themselves to become college statistics. Katie, who had red hair and surname starting with an O-apostrophe, was an Australian citizen. Even though she was born and raised near NYC. This fascinated me.

Over the next four years we lived with one another, shared crushes, met families, met future spouses, dressed up in ridiculous outfits, had sleepovers, planned a wedding, and finally, graduated.

The first fall that we didn't reunite for school was one of the darkest times of my life. I was the only one of the five of us to stay in Philly. Chrissie headed off to Phoenix, Carrie moved to Seattle, Tiffany moved to Boulder and Katie went to LA.

I was still working at the same job I had in college, and decided it was time to move on. I only stayed at the next job for five months, it was so terrible. All of my energy at this time was focusing on keeping it together until our wedding. Not only was I lucky enough to be marrying SOB, the man I loved more than anything, but our wedding would be the first time all five of us would be reunited since graduation.

Now it's ten years later. Chrissie and her husband are living back in Philly. Carrie and her husband, who, too, was a friend from college, also live in Philly and they are having their first baby in January! Katie is still out in LA, and while we don't chat every day, I hear through the grapevine that she's happy and doing well. Tiffany lives in Portland and I just got word that she's also in a good place.

I can't imagine my life without these amazing women. So to them, I say Happy Anniversary.