My Best Friend

 

I was standing in your room two weeks ago. I was helping clean it up a bit in anticipation of your arrival for Easter. I happened to be in an Israel & New Breed mood, so I was blasting my mp3 player with songs about being a friend. That’s when I realized a couple of things:

·        It seems once I hit 7 years old I firmly established in my mind that you were the only person I would make gifts for

·        I also decided then that you were my best friend and I haven’t wavered from that in the 16 years that followed

·        You kept half of a “best friends” necklace as that I gave you. I used to think those things were so cool! It says “Friend n. A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts”

·        What moved me the most was that you kept all that stuff from two decades ago, well maybe not everything, but I never really noticed how much of your room is covered with drawings and crafts from me

·        So I guess I must mean something special to you too. And that’s when I got overwhelmed and teary eyed

I’ve spent most of my life imitating you and I’m proud of that because you are someone I look up to and who encourages me to make my own decisions. Many of my friends know you affectionately as my “life coach”. You’ve always provided a beacon of light that I can set my ship by. The light starts flashing in a warning when I’m headed in a dangerous direction, sometimes it’s dim in my eyes and other times I see it clearly but without fail I always know that you’re ahead of me setting a safe path for me to follow.

Thanks for teaching me that if anything is worth doing, that it’s worth doing well. "Work hard, play harder!" (okay so technically you never said that quote)

I don't think I've been able to fully articulate just how happy I am that you are mine and I am yours but I'll keep trying.

I love you big sis! Thank you for loving me! 

Happy Birthday!!!!!

This was on a birthday card you gave me when I was a teenager and you were away at college:

Once in here, one lives there. One is a little taller than the other. Two different colors of hair, two different outlooks on life, two very different views from their windows. Both have different tomorrows ahead. Each is unique in so many ways. Each has her own story, with all the busy things going on in the present. Each has different work to do and different demands on the day. Each has a separate destination and a distinctly different path to get there. But...

For all the things that might be different and unique about them…these two sisters will always share so much. They will always be the best of family and friends, entwined together, through all the days of their lives. Their love will always be very special: gentle and joyful when it can be, strong and giving when it needs to be, reminding them, no matter how different their stories turn out…

They share the incredibly precious gift of being “sisters.” And when you think of some of the best things this world has to offer, a blessing like that is really what it’s all about. With Love to a Very Wonderful Sister –by Laurel Atherton

The best is yet to come,

~Adwoa