Best Friend: a term used for someone who you aren’t related to. Someone who is your family, but not by blood. A person who you pick to be like your sibling. Someone you can tell anything to, without the fear of being judged or feeling embarrassed. Someone to help you see, fix, and heal from your problems and mistakes. And this person, could be the most unexpected person in your life. Usually, you judge someone from the first time you see them, whether it is in a good or bad way. You don’t give them a chance to show who they truly are, because you already have an image of them in your mind. In the future you can never know who you will end up being friends with. The people who you liked a first, might turn out to not be the right people for you, and the people you weren’t so fond of at first might be someone you learn that you get along with very well in the future.

         My best friend, Michelle, and I have known each other for over three years, but we’ve only been friends for about two of them. When I first met her, I never would’ve thought that she would be my best friend. In my first year at TIS, we were both in the same friend group, I got close with the others quickly, but she was the only exception. We rarely talked to each other, and the only times we did, it was about the few classes we had together. I was always convinced that she hated me; she always acted like I didn’t exist, while I wanted to be friends with her.

         I remember Michelle from early 2020 well. She had brown hair like coffee, brown eyes that glow gold in the sun, and she is a little short, which I think is cute, but she always hated that about herself. Unlike now, she also wore her glasses, now she just wears contacts instead. She also used to have braces, which she took out a few months ago.

 Before covid came to Albania, we started talking more in classes, but that would be the only place we would. In literature class we had read the book Holes, which we had to do a project on with a partner.

“Do you want to work on this together?”

That question was unexpected, I thought she’d go ask Brooklyn, one of the girls in our friend group, to be her partner like she did before. I, of course, accepted, and we both started talking more and more without it being awkward. I remember how happy I was.

Then covid started, and we would always text each other about assignments, tests, and other school related things, until we just started talking about other things. We’d stay on face time all day and night to talk, watch movies, sing, do homework together or just stay in the call, sitting in silence, while we did something else.

         Months passed, and we got closer and closer over summer. We told each other everything, and in seventh grade, we were inseparable. Every class, every break, every weekend, we’d be together. I even found out that before we became friends, she thought my name was Rea, which is something I still bring up.

We went from people who barely knew each other’s name, to two girls as close as sisters, and have learned that you never know what waits for you in the future, or who you might end up staying with and that the most unexpected things can happen. Michelle and I are still best friends after over two years. We went through middle school together, and I hope that we stay friends through and after high school, but you never know what the future holds. If we don’t end up staying friends, I am glad that we got to be for at least some time, even though I know that I will never have the same bond with anyone else.