NCHThis I Believe...
I Believe in Life Long Friendships
Laura Ramirez
Perhaps standing with our hands on a police car at three in the morning is not the perfect definition of friendship, but two days before graduation, this is where my friends and I found ourselves, scared like we had never been scared before and at the same time smiling at each other when the cops were not looking. Our senior prank turned out to be a bust, but it became a memory that I will always share with those that were with me that night, my closest friends. I believe in friendship that gets you through the hardest moments of your life.
Everything happens for a reason and all that happens makes us strong and defines us. I heard it all the time and always thought it a cliché phrase. It was not until over a year ago that I saw that there is always some truth behind the old clichés. At eighteen years old, I was going through things that I had never dreamed of, the death of a family member and my brother being in Iraq for the second time, among other things. When I was home, I had to be strong for my parents. No one can describe the anguish a family feels when there is no call from Iraq for over a month. And when it does come, it is to inform you that your loved one was in a humvee that ran over a bomb on the side of the road and that he was taken to Germany because he was in a coma for three days. The relief you feel when you finally hear his voice, is inexplicable. Nothing else in the world matters, just him.
Being with my friends was the only time I could release everything that was inside me. There was never a day when I did not have a shoulder to lean on, a shoulder to cry on. The moment I needed them, they were there for me, holding my hand, going through everything with me, as if it was happening to them as well. The days I was not strong enough to endure everything that was going on, they were there to pick me up and put a smile on my face, at times making my face hurt so much from smiling. They did not need me to tell them when something was wrong. They already knew.
Our last year of high school was not perfect for any of us, but we had each other when things got rough. We helped each other get through the hardest moments of our lives. That year brought us closer together than any of us could ever imagine. Everything that we went through changed each and every one of us one way or another, even if we were not the ones that were directly affected by the circumstances. It made us mature faster than we would have if nothing had happened. Through all of this, we shared a bond that will never be broken. Even though we are all separated all over the country right now, we know what we went through together and it will always stay with us no matter where we go.
These are the friends that no matter how much time passes, if any of us needed a shoulder to cry on, we would all volunteer, no questions asked. These are the friends that in ten years, we will get together and discuss our failed senior prank, like we do every time we get together, laughing at our mistakes and thinking of what we should have done better. It never fails. Every time we are together, there is always a picture, although the picture keeps getting smaller each time. This picture reminds us of what we went through and all we shared. It reminds us that whenever we need each other, we know where to find each other. These are the friends that other people search for many years in their lives. I call myself lucky to have them. I do not now what I would have done without them.