Last week the front of a cherry pop tart box arrived in my mailbox – a custom pastry tart postcard with the simple message – thinking of you – from my childhood friend, Karen. It took me back to that time in our lives when we were young, in college, full of dreams – and would mail each other postcards from the sides of wine cooler cases with our critique of the bouquet and essence of each flavor.
We first ran into each other on the playground in second grade – literally. Actually, I ran into her and we knocked heads. I broke her glasses and gave her a nasty gash right next to her eye. It wasn’t long after she was rushed to the nurse’s station that I felt the goose egg rising on my forehead, so I straggled in behind her. And that is how we met. We formed a girl gang so we could chase the boys on the playground. She being the fiery bold Captain and I the sensitive gentle second in command.
We went to separate schools until our paths crossed again in high school. She was still that fierce bold girl from the playground but had metamorphosed into a stunning blonde beauty. She made the cheerleading team and worn the Caroline County Farm Queen crown. I was still the shy sensitive girl, tuned in to all the hormonally charged emotions rolling around the halls of our educational confines. An Emo before Emo’s existed.
We spent our free time together, sleeping over at each other’s house, driving around in her Mach I listening to Her Yaz cassette tape. Our last summer before going off to college, we worked together busing tables in the sleepy tourist town of St. Michaels. We shared our dreams. She would be a dazzling lawyer and I a renowned journalist.
Time has rolled on so far from that day on the playground when a shy sensitive freckle faced girl crashed into her bold fierce beauty of a friend. The miracle of us is not that two opposites could create such a strong friendship. The miracles lies in the fact that we have always seen in the other what we carry in ourselves. She has always seen my own fierce beauty. I have always felt her deep well of emotions. Our lives may not have landed where we dreamed them to be – but sitting here, holding my cherry pop tart postcard, I know it will all be ok – because we still dream big for each other.
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