I Believe in the Power of Friendship

I believe a single person has the power to change a life. Maybe not as drastically as some people may think, but just by being a friend to somebody who needs a friend.

When I moved to Muncie, Indiana, I did not have a lot of friends, in fact, I only had a couple. I moved there when I was going into third grade and I was young and very shy. I did not want to talk to people I didn’t know and clung to the people I did know. One day a teacher introduced me to a girl in my class that I had never even noticed. When I first met her I thought she was kind of weird and the complete opposite of me and didn’t think much of her. But we started talking and hanging out at school a little more each day. One day, we just clicked, and we were pretty much inseparable after that. She even lived in my neighborhood about three minutes away from me. We spent all our time together and became best friends.

When my fifth grade year was coming to a close, I found out it was time for my family to move again to a little place I had never heard of before, good ole’ Bardstown, Kentucky. Once I found out we were moving back to Kentucky, I was ecstatic because we would be close to our family again and my best friend that I left behind in Leitchfield. Then all of a sudden it hit me. I would be leaving the person that changed my life. The person who completely changed my middle school memories from something that I would not want to remember to something memorable.

I had to tell her about the move before we put the “FOR SALE” sign in our front yard. I finally told her about the move and she didn’t know what to say; I was her best friend and she was mine and I was moving four hours away. She told me later that seeing the “FOR SALE” sign in our yard killed her inside and couldn’t bear to look at it. She knew what the future held and so did I. I would be moving four hours away and only be able to see her once or maybe twice a year.

Once the moving day came, we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch. We stayed in touch for a little bit but slowly drifted away. We only talked a couple times a month if that. Even though we were drifting away, I knew we would always be friends forever. She changed my life and I’m pretty sure I changed hers as well.