Decade of devotion

For 10 years I have been best friends with Sarah Gilliland. Ten years of late night talks, redundant banter, bad jokes and good laughs. Ten years of growing apart, growing together and just growing up. Ten years of comfort, acceptance and guidance. Ten years of a love meant to be celebrated.

My first encounter with Sarah was in the midst of a deadly battle. The year was 2007, and I was attending an outing the children’s department of my church was hosting at Cheer Texas. I was playing in the foam pit when two boys made me the target of a vicious attack. Hurtling the large foam pieces at a defenseless, 6-year-old me, they slowly began burying me in what would have been a very plush grave had it not been for the little girl whose family recently joined the church. Sarah, who I had not known before that moment, came to my rescue. She defended me from the boys and pulled me to safety. We escaped out of the foam pit and emerged into a relationship that would come to be one of the most meaningful in my life to date.

It was only at church that we became close due to our attendance of different elementary schools. We readily anticipated middle school, our first opportunity to share a class, to see each other every day. The time finally came, but even then we were apart. It wouldn’t be until junior year that we would have classes together. In this sense, one could consider our friendship to be unconventional. We grew up separate from the other, unlike so many childhood friendships formed between classmates or neighbors or family friends. We were none of those things, but we were best friends, and that connection surpassed any physical separation we would face for the many years to follow.

While I resented not being able to spend more time with Sarah growing up, I am thankful for it now. The separation allowed us to mature independently and exist within our relationship as two wholes instead of two halves. Without Sarah, I was still Lauren, which allowed our friendship to persevere through formative periods of our lives. Such a period was junior high, a time when many friendships fell apart in the wake of a terror known as puberty. We all changed, and it is only natural that our relationships followed suit. Between Sarah and me, these changes prompted a need for support rather than conflict. With patience and understanding she saw me through one of the most difficult periods of my life, and for that, I will be forever grateful.

We’re nearly adults now, at least that’s what my parents and teachers tell me, and I no longer need Sarah like I needed her in junior high, and that’s okay. Our time spent together is casual and filled with just enough silence to still be comfortable company, and that’s okay. We’ve made it through 10 years, more than half of our lives together, and we’re okay.

My friendship with Sarah Gilliland has taught me to look beyond myself and to be considerate of those around me, to be patient and understanding, to ask for help when I don’t even want to acknowledge I need it, to forgive but never forget, to be responsible for my thoughts and actions, and to take care of myself when she couldn’t. My friendship with Sarah Gilliland has taught me a love I have more of than words to express its meaning.