Usually it’s easier to make friends when you are younger. You are not impacted by social media nor do you create a fake superficial connection. Your thoughts are not manipulated and you have little care for only sitting around. Luckily I was born into the relationship I have with my best friend, Lily.

Our parents were connected in Texas through work and soon created an unbreakable bond that is still present to this day. By “coincidence” they created two other pairs of best friends. Lily and I, my sister Emery, Lily’s sister Claire and lastly my sister Elise and Lily’s sister Julia were all within an eight month age gap. Sadly, we only see each other once a year. But each year we all spend each and every moment with each other. We review what is new in our life and talk about how much we are going to miss each other before we even have to leave. 

Lily and I’s friendship is like a trip to Disneyland. The less I go there, the more excited I am for my next visit. And each year a new exhibit is added to the park.  

I have not stayed in one spot for as long as I have, until I moved to Sioux Falls. But even then I have only lived here for half of my life. Unlike most of the people I know, I do not have a childhood best friend who I was raised with since day one. Obviously I have the friends who I have known since I was eight, but not the relationship that I would have had if I was fully raised in Texas. With little connection until Lily and I were 13, we observed each other’s lives through our mom’s Facebook pages. Until the summer of 2018, it had almost been four years since we had seen each other. But just like every other time, we had no problem jumping right back into where we left off. 

Although we live across the U.S. from each other, we still maintain our friendship and always make sure to catch each other up on our latest life stories. Raised hundreds of miles away, you would never once doubt that we are friends. From watching all the seasons of “Total Drama” as teenagers to knowing exactly what the other one is going to say without having to say it. We are the ultimate pair of best friends, even though 750 miles is so far. It’s got nothing on our 16 year friendship.