Best Friends? More Like Soulmates

I think best friends are different for everyone. Some people’s best friends they’ve known since birth. Some people met their best friends on a team in high school. Some people have a huge group of best friends. Today I’m linking up with The Shine Project to share with you my most treasured relationship – my best friend, Jessica.

Technically, we met on a Spring day in 2004, a couple months before I was getting ready to graduate from high school. I went down to my soon-to-be college, CNU, to try out for the college dance team. Jessica, a CNU freshman at the time, was also there at the try-out, auditioning to come back for a second year. I remember seeing the girls who were already on the team and thought she seemed so sweet! (Not to mention, she was gorgeous!) I made the team and was excited to be coming back at the end of the Summer for dance camp! Dance camp was when we really started to become close. We started learning more and more about each other and realized how much we freakishly had in common. {We are both Capricorns, we both have the same middle name, we both drove blue cars, we both HAVE to walk fast, we both later dated guys with the same first name at the same time, etc.} Our outfits also tend to match. Unplanned of course. In addition to that, we were practically the same person. These are many of the reasons that we refer to each other as “Soulmate.”

We became inseparable.

We both lived on campus my freshman year. There was a rule in the residence halls that if you had an overnight guest, they could only stay twice a week. We had dance practice at the crack of dawn. So, since we were inseparable, I’d just go over to Jessica’s “suite” and we’d hang out, I’d sleep on her futon, and we’d wake up at 5am for practice. But don’t forget, guests could only stay for two nights a week. We were so inseparable that Jess would get her other roommates to check me in at the front desk under their name. We’d all stay up playing Mario Kart or watching movies like Varsity Blues. I honestly don’t know how we’d get through those early morning practices without each other.

Then, of course there were the annual Midnight Madness poses at the start of basketball season:

My sophomore year, Jessica decided to pursue other things in college and left dance team. I was so sad to see her go and it was just never the same. Coincidence that I ended up leaving dance team less than a year later to start training at a dance studio? Our lives weren’t as intertwined anymore as we got involved with other groups of people but we still remained very close. Examples of our closeness:

Jessica is a year older than me so when she graduated from college and left me all to my little self, it was tough. She moved away, started a job, and met her now-husband. We didn’t talk as much, let alone see each other very often. It was sad but, like always, we’d pick up right where we left off whenever we did get together. Then, it was my turn to graduate!

After graduation, I moved back to Northern Virginia which put me even further away from my Soulmate :( Again, we always knew we were there for one another. Our bond is so special and I’ve seen first-hand how, no matter the time or distance, true friendships always remain strong. There were still many more post-college fun times to be had:

When people see us together, they see how strong our bond is and they can sense the genuine friendship between us. She is such a beautiful person, inside and out and I’m glad I’ve had such an amazing best friend to look up to all these years to show me what it means to be a good friend, daughter, sister, wife, and mother. She’s one-of-a-kind. I truly believe {as corny as it may seem} that we were meant to be best friends; that somehow God had it in His plans for us to meet and experience the blessings of a true and real friendship.

I mean it when I say that I don’t know where I’d be without her. She has been there through everything. Every good moment as well as every bad. We’ve shared our dreams together and watched as they have come true.

That’s the true meaning of Soulmates.