It was like no time had passed; The Power of Friendship

Without a doubt some of my most important relationships are my friendships. Growing up as an only child, I created family in those closest to me. You knew that if you were going to be my friend there was a not so unspoken promise you made to me that this was a forever situation. My favorite memories are made up of rummaging through each other’s closets, spending hours getting ready, sharing our crushes with one another and causing just the right amount of trouble. I was also lucky enough to have a few guy friends who were always exactly that, friends, and who I also claimed as family. Those I picture as I write this were and ARE still my closest friends, my family, my people. I live across the country from most of them and months or years may pass but when we get together we give each other something that most can’t; the past, present and future. For better or worse I am 15 again and nothing and everything matters all at once. 

I know that what I described above is special but also universal. Friendships are relationships that aren’t talked about enough in the scheme of things. They are our first real experience with choosing our own family, with commitment and with the give and take that is necessary for a relationship to survive. Some we outgrow, some we grow with and some we grow back into. What I love about the beauty of friendship is that no matter the generation, the culture or even the country we can all see ourselves in a story about childhood friends. So, when Titi shared the following stories it was no surprise to me that with just a few minor changes I could be reading about my own friends, my own experiences and I hope you see a little bit of your own childhood in it too. 

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This seems like a good time to talk about my childhood friends; Sonia, David and George. Sonia was the most important, we would talk for hours on the phone after school every day. But she always got me in trouble in school because of her wild ideas. For some reason she would always sit in front of me in class even though she was much taller. Sonia was tall, blonde, blue eyes, very beautiful and I was short with dark hair, and cute. She always wanted to trade clothes for some reason, so we would go to the bathroom and change clothes at school. I always looked so funny because all her clothes were so big on me and she had these short skirts. Well one day we were sitting in class and underneath the desk she passed me back her skirt and said “here, now give me your skirt” but it was already class time. So there I was trying to take off my skirt to hand it to her but then the teacher walked in. We had a very nice looking young male teacher and there she is in her slip,  and me with two skirts as I am trying to get her skirt on to slip mine off for her. He looked at us and knew something was going on, because we were always getting in trouble. He said “Sonia please stand up”. ”No”, she responded. You didn’t say no to teachers so he said “excuse me, I asked you to stand up.” “No, I can't”, she said. So finally he stopped asking and I was able to pass her my skirt and she got it on. We were both sent to the office. Oh my we were in trouble. We always got in some kind of silly trouble together. 

We were so close but around high school she went to school in Spain, although she would come back every summer and it was like we had never been apart. The last time I saw her was a few years ago in Buenos Aires. It was like no time had passed after 40 years of not seeing each other. I have lost track of her lately, I have written letters but haven't heard back. I assume something has happened as that's the way it goes now that we are at this age. 

Speaking of good friends and also Sonia and I being troublemakers; there was this young boy in school with us, freckled face, funny looking kid named George. Sonia and I used to make his poor life miserable, calling him “Georgie Porgie” and singing “Georgie Porgie pudding and pie kissed the girls and made them cry.” He would sit on the steps and cry, poor George. One day Georgie Porgie disappeared, until a few years later here came this tall gorgeous looking guy who came over to Sonia and I to say hi, he smiled and we had no idea who he was. He said “It’s me Georgie Porgie!” My goodness, Georgie Porgie grew up. Sonia and I both liked him, we never said it to one another, it was like an unspoken secret. We all became good friends and he and Sonia ended up dating for a long time. George ended up moving though and so did Sonia, and we all just grew up, as you do. 

Then there was my friend David. We started in kindergarten and continued to go through school together. He was just one of the nicest guys, always such a good friend, nothing romantic, just good buddies. All our birthday parties or family parties we would each attend. David would always take me to parties when I was older because our families knew each other and they trusted him. We would also look out for one another. If I was dancing with a guy who he didn’t think was the right guy for me he would come over and cut in, and if he liked a girl who I didn't think was good enough I would say “no that is not the one for you.” We just had this wonderful, wonderful friendship. We lost track of each other over the years as we each grew up and went our separate ways. Probably 40 years or so ago though a relative of Henry’s got sick and we went to see them in a hospital in Chicago, this relative also happened to be a relative of David’s through marriage. When we got to the hospital there was David and his beautiful wife. We were so happy to see each other, just crying and laughing. His wife came up to me later and said “Teresa for years I hated you as I heard about you from him and his family so many times, until I realized this was just a wonderful friendship”. I know that David has passed on at this point and I will never see him again, but he will always be special to me.