is a single mama in the city, super-savvy editor, writer, video host and shameless shoe whore.
What ever happened to your very first best friend?
Thursday, September 25, 2008 Lizzie was my very first best friend. We met when we were two and lived across the courtyard from each other when Lincoln Park was a bad neighborhood.
Our birthdays are only ten days apart and one year, we shared a party. We were at home in each other's apartments and once even tried to carry each other down the stairs, landing in a heap of tears and bruises at the bottom.
Even through grade school, we insisted on call each other "best friend," having sleep overs that got more difficult each time our families moved and as we changed schools and circles. Inevitably, our lives pulled at us and we lost touch.
But by the grace of Facebook, Lizzie found me and last night, we had dinner. I haven't seen her in 14 or 15 years and only heard tidbits of her life passed on when our mothers ran into each other around the city.
This time, there weren't crayons or homemade, scribbled Playgirl magazines (that was her idea, I swear). There were no Luke Skywalker trading cards to kiss or thrift store outfits to model for each other.
Instead, we came with stories about our husbands, our children, our divorces and our writing careers. We live very different lives now but we still share a lot.
We told long and winding explanations of how we got to here and then we agreed to meet up with our kids and spend some time going over childhood memories.
It was just so easy and lovely, which doesn't always happen when you meet up with someone from the way-past. Best friends don't stick forever, and sometimes, that connection falls completely through the cracks on the long road between preschool and post-partum.
It's no surprise that I drove home wondering who Lil E will know or meet up with at some little restaurant in the city when he is in his mid-30s. Will he still be friends with the kids from playgroup or our neighborhood? Will he even recognize them after all those years?
Of course, not all friends are meant to be in our lives forever. Some serve their purpose or good in a short time and others are with us through it all. Just as I get to know and enjoy the familiarity of Lizzie, I am curious to see who becomes Lil E's very first best friend and who sticks around as his life unfolds.
And just like I know my mom is anxiously awaiting a synopsis of my night with the girl who taught me to swear and how much fun throwing water balloons from a balcony could be and why sharing a birthday is fun even for a small child, I will be waiting to hear the details of his reunions too.
It was a full-circle kind of evening and I hope that circle just keeps on turning.
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