I Am Because We Are

Prompt: Who helps you to be the better version of yourself, only because they are in your life? Who strengthens you, motivates you, supports you, knows you like no one else?

In my earliest memory with D, we were fourteen years old in my preppy boarding school dorm room during the first week of high school — a Puerto Rican and a Jamaican from the inner city.

She was dancing. 

Probably to Shabba Ranks. 

And we’ve been dancing together ever since. 

To call her my truest friend never feels like enough. She is the sister I always wanted and the soul partner I hope to never lose. It’s her birthday this month, so D, this one’s for you…

…my love letter to you and our friendship — I am me because we are us. 

When my flights of fancy and penchant for risk arise, you are the rock that grounds me back to reality with your immeasurable patience and wisdom.

Yet, you’re also the one who pushes me past my comfort zones and insecurities as a willing partner in crime. 

You’re a wondrous oxymoron of contradictions who will pull me in for a frolic and splash around in public fountains (with a white blouse nonetheless!) but also stop me from sending that text I’d regret later by breaking down all the permutations of its logic or lack thereof. For hours. Gotta love a fellow overthinker.  

Together, we make up that special sauce. 

And not just with Honey Jack. We walk into a bar together and we can own the place if we want to — be it with our raucous rendition of TLC’s No Scrubs or sucking up shots from atop a strange dude’s hairy navel on a double-dog dare while quoting Le Petit Prince from memory. Here’s to our milkshakes always bringing all the boys to the yard! And to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Any space we occupy together is special. Our sophomore year dorm room. The BB common room. My car on road trips. Hospitals. Bob’s Sporting Goods. The Parkside. Police precincts. Public parks, and yes, even that dumpster behind that hotel. We’re always just a little bit wicked, and not just on Wednesdays.

We’ve lived together, cried together, triumphed together, and shared those parts of ourselves with each other that few others get to see – body and soul. You are my secret keeper, my twin soul, my best cheerleader, my lifeline, and my ride or die.

We’ve had a few tough moments in our nearly thirty years of friendship. But it’s never broken us. It’s made us stronger in the realization that what we share is so very special and something we could never give up on.

I am a better me because we are us. 

I am stronger because I’ve watched you overcome challenges that no one human should ever have to endure with such grace and grit. You are a warrior in every sense of the word. 

I am more loved because you make me feel worthy and worth it. You never let me give up on my whimsical notions of love. You accept my melancholic nature and stoke my wanderlusting soul.

I am eternally grateful because you’ve helped me discover things about my mind, my body, and why I tick the way I do that I wouldn’t have learned on my own. Facts. Just accept it.

I am supremely lucky because even though you know I’ll always look for the sunset, somehow you discern the exact right moment to open that rarely used camera app on your phone to send me the sunrise instead. 

You’re amazing.

Always remember that you are independent and self-sufficient as fuck, but that it’s okay to need people, too. You are loved and cherished every day for all that you do and all that you are. Never doubt your brilliant mind, gorgeous face, and kick-ass body because…HOT DAMN! You won’t just survive. You will thrive. And the best is yet to come.

I love you, D.

I’m with you until infinity. Trust that those matching rocking chairs are already on pre-order.

Two wounded birds we may be, but together we soar. We dance! And we sing…especially when I’m tipsy and crying on Smule with you. 😉

Post Image Credit: D