There is something very special about the friendships you make before adulthood really starts. These are the people who knew you when you still wore hand-me-downs from your cousins and had really bad skin thanks to puberty. The people who remember your first boy-band crush and ate Frito's with you out by the pool. These are the people who remember you before you got the haircut that flatters your face and started answering work calls on your cell.
The best friendships from this time grow up with you. I am lucky enough to have several women in my life to go on this journey with. Recently I was at one such friend’s baby shower, chatting about some property my husband and I are thinking about. I heard myself say “I’d really like something with a well on it,” and immediately blushed. This is a friend who remembers teenage Sarah: eager to get out of the south and be famous, perpetually on the go, who thought a 9-5 job would be worse than hell.
She smiled at me and very graciously said, “thank goodness we are not the people we were in high school.” I couldn't agree more.
People who remember you from before know your history- you don’t have to explain or give a backstory...they were there. And if you’re lucky enough, they’ll still be there 20 years later, supporting your new dreams and your new chapters. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I think that’s true. It’s also true that it takes a village to become who you are meant to be after childhood.
New people enter our lives all the time, and each relationship has a place and a purpose that is significant and special. While we are always moving forward, it is important to remember the people who came before and be grateful for and to take comfort in the fact that they know you, too.
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