One of the best days of my life happened in first grade. I was actually sitting alone, dejected one
afternoon at recess, because my former best friend Samantha had just informed
me that we were no longer best friends (for some long ago forgotten reason, one
that was clearly of highest importance in first grade). Just as I was contemplating how I was going
to convince my parents to let me transfer to the school across town (one more
likely to have first grade students made out of “best friend material”), I was
approached by a girl from my class who I knew only vaguely. “Hi, I’m Laura. Do you want to be friends?” While I wasn’t quite sure what to make of
this gangly, red-headed girl with a clear penchant for being loud, I realized
quickly that I didn’t really have anything to lose, so I said “sure.” The rest, as they say, is history.
It’s actually a little hard for me to recall meeting
Laura, because it’s hard for me to remember a time in my life before her. Ever since that fateful spring day at Carlin
Park, we have been friends – best friends, in every sense of the word. Oh sure, we experienced our fair share of
squabbles, girl fights, fights over boys, disagreements, and time periods of
growing apart… but, when the gossip died down, the crushes faded, and the other
social circles broke apart, we always grew back together, and picked back up
where we had left off.
After 25 years of friendship, I could dedicate an entire
book to the Tales of the Adventures of Laura and Meagan (and really, I think I
should someday). We did things lots of
childhood friends do: rode bikes, had sleepovers, gossiped, planned parties,
went on trips… We also did lots of things that maybe not all childhood friends
do, and even a few things we probably shouldn’t have… we anonymously tee-peed
her neighbor’s house one night, but then felt so guilty about it we went over
in the morning to help clean up. We went
to Cedar Point religiously every summer throughout middle and high school –
starting our planning weeks in advance, including who else would be invited
(boys? No boys?), where each person would sit on the drive there (depending on
who was crushing on who that particular year), and the exact order of rides,
how long we were willing to wait in line for each one, and how many times we
would ride each coaster… and we would not deviate from the plan. (And we wonder
why our friends didn’t think we were any fun???). We share(d) an obsessive love of Pride and
Prejudice – BBC version, obviously – where we discovered that perhaps the only
man who could come between us (and possibly still could) was Colin Firth. We, and this is true, staged a guinea pig
wedding, complete with invitations, guests, gifts (mostly hay and carrots), a
maid of honor (another guinea pig), and a best man (a large black rabbit who
dressed up for the occasion – in a tie we stole from her dad’s closet. The highlight of the day was when said best
man went missing for 15 minutes or so, yet we were physically incapable of
looking for him because of laughing so hard at the thought of someone finding a
large black rabbit in a neck tie…)
We were in band together, youth group together, we
scrapbooked together, and lived only about a mile apart, so shared rides to
school for years. We nursed each other
through bad breakups, sucky relationships, and life and career crises. We’ve had countless adventures together. We met Tori Amos together. In essence, we tackled the various yet inevitable
travails of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood together, and came out
on the other side still connected.
Today is my dear friend Laura’s 30th birthday,
but unfortunately she will be unable to read this blog post. Now, before you instantly think this is going
in a macabre direction, I will tell you that Laura resides on a tiny island in
the South China Sea, where she lives and works full time rescuing and
rehabilitating endangered sea turtles.
Yes, you read that correctly, my best friend is officially the coolest
person in the world.
One of Laura’s most memorable attributes from childhood
was her love of animals. This was not
always channeled in a positive way – examples that come to mind include her
shutting my cats in windows, dressing my dog in pants, and us approaching a
clearly altered raccoon in the middle of the day, because Laura was worried it
was injured (turns out it had rabies…).
However, with work experience and formalized education, this has matured
into a serious, passionate, and not-to-be-underestimated life mission of saving
endangered species. Laura has lived in
China for over a year, where she co-manages and is integral to the daily operations
of a floating hospital for injured and dying sea turtles of various
species. She works 7 days a week, from
dawn until dusk, and the things she has been able to accomplish have been
nothing short of amazing. And did I
mention she doesn’t get paid for any of this?
Yeah. That’s how passionate this
girl is about saving her turtles. There
are many things that I love and esteem about my Laura, but this, her single
minded fervor for bringing these animals back from the brink of non-existence
is her most admirable and defining trait.
When humanity looks back on the history of our planet, I truly believe
that the most remembered and honored of us will be the Lauras of the world:
those who fought tirelessly to prevent our fellow creatures from disappearing
from Earth entirely. I am fiercely proud
of her.
And I miss her.
Every day. When I look in the mirror
and see the aggregation of the things I have experienced and become, I see
Laura. She is a person so integral to my
development and identity that, whenever we find ourselves in the same place, we
are able to simply pick back up where we left off. Regardless of the time that has passed. The connection I feel to her is more than the
sum total of our shared experiences – it is a bond that is difficult for me to
fully describe, a strong, tightly woven silver thread between our souls that
has existed long before our physical presence on Earth, and one that will exist
long after. She is the yin to my yang,
the light to my dark, the cheese to my macaroni… She is my best friend. She is my soul’s reflection in another body.
As time and physical space have moved us apart, I have
become increasingly aware of what a precious and rare gift a friendship like
ours is. I think that we all probably
have “soul mate” friends, but I don’t know that we all find that friend in this
life. Lucky for me, mine only lived a
mile away.
So, Happy birthday Laura.
So far, it seems like life on the other side of the 30s isn’t so
bad. I miss you, I love you, and I am
incredibly proud of you.
For more information on Laura’s Sea Turtle rescue and
rehabilitation, visit http://www.seaturtles911.org/
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