My Best Girlfriend

"It takes a long time to grow an old friend." - John Leonard


Ashley and I met back in the day, in Eighth grade, when she moved into my tiny hometown. We joke because we were not really friends at that point. In fact, I don’t think she even liked me! We were more acquaintances through Eighth and Ninth grade. I don’t know the exact time it happened, but sometime in 10th grade, we became best friends, and she has been my best girlfriend ever since. We got each other through high school, both of us hating it! The picture above is of us playing karaoke during my 17th surprise birthday party, which she threw for me! Sorry about the picture quality!

After high school, we were still best friends, but we grew apart a little bit. I got married right after turning 20, when most people my age were not quite ready to settle down. I was busy being a new wife, and she was enjoying her time not being married. It was like this for a couple years. My mother-in-law said that the same thing happened to her and her friend, but then they grew back together. I was hoping that would happen to Ashley and me.We kept seeing each other during Christmastime, and as we both got older, we started growing closer again. I started realizing how difficult it was to find good girlfriends, and I think it gets more difficult as we get older. I remember I was in my Jazzercise class, and I was doing leg lifts (which are killers!) Tim McGraw came on with his song “My Old Friend.” The lyrics say,

My old friend, I recall
The times we had hanging on my wall
I wouldn't trade them for gold
Cause they laugh and they cry me
Somehow sanctify me
They're woven in the stories I have told
And tell again

My old friend, I apologize
For the years that have passed
Since the last time you and I
Dusted off those memories
But the running and the races
The people and the places
There's always somewhere else
I had to be
Time gets thin, my old friend

All of a sudden in the middle of Jazzercising, I started crying! I was saying, “I miss Ashley!” I think some people may have thought I was crazy! Now, as we are older, we have a lot in common again. We understand each other more. I understand a lot of what she is experiencing because I have experienced it myself, and she is a never ending support to me. I now know how important friendship is because it is so rare. Ashley is a better friend than I deserve, and I could never repay her for all that she has done for me. She is always here for me, even when we are 10 hours apart! I thank Heavenly Father for best friends like her.

(The above picture is of us this past year during Christmastime. By the way, she has lost over 70 pounds in the past year doing Weight Watchers! What an inspiration she is!)