One of my best friends called me today. She is my person-I-don’t-see-enough-but-everytime-we-talk-on-the-phone-it’s-like-no-time-has-passed friend. I love her dearly. She is one of a very few friends I have who are the closest thing I have to a sister.

And she’s getting married!

She’s probably an unlikely friend, truth be known. We met as hallmates in college, before I realized my own conservative tendencies and before I realized that life’s too short to be judgmental. Out of my closest friends from school, she was the one I always expected would be married first. And now here we are, most of the rest of my close college pals having been married for 7 or 8 years, and she being excited about planning her wedding. It’s fabulous!! There is something about her having waited...having gone to school and lived her life and experienced many things in these years since graduation. I can’t imagine her having done anything else. And it truly does add a whole new dimension of excitement to her planning and dreaming and having the most beautiful day ever. She’ll never know how very much it means to me to have been asked to stand with her that day. That 13 years, one husband, two kids, a minivan, and (seemingly) a million miles haven’t changed our deep and enduring friendship.

I never think about my dear friend without remembering the night before we graduated from school. It seemed to me that all of my friends had plans. Some were getting married. Some were going on to graduate school. She was headed for a year of volunteer service in Washington. I had no definite plan other than to go home and job hunt. I was painfully sad. We talked on the phone that night until the early hours of the morning. We cried and worried that distance and circumstance would somehow change or diminish our friendship... and the next morning we held our diplomas, held one another, and said goodbye.

It’s been more years than I can really believe since that day. Our lives have changed so much since then. We’ve both completed graduate school and gone on to work in our chosen fields. We’ve both found the loves we were meant to find. I’ve become a mother. And she’s still the friend I would call at 3 o’clock in the morning if I needed to.

Here’s to you, my friend. Your joy at this time is my joy for you too. I can’t wait to share in your excitement and hope for the future. I love you and am deeply honored to share in that special day next summer.