What I Wish I’d Known Before Watching My Best Friend Leave
Three years ago I met a girl who had joined the school I attended over the summer. I remember the moment I was introduced to her, that my first thought was “we could not be any more different” as she stood towering over me in stark white block-heels. We still laugh about it now, how I confessed that my first impressions weren’t exactly positive, and how she too had echoed my sentiment. Through some twist of fate, we actually ended up being more alike than anyone could have predicted and over the course of that first year found ourselves becoming practically inseparable. Talking too much in class, laughing too loudly in public, and just generally getting up to mischief.
None of that could have prepared me for the moment barely a year later when I stood outside the local train station and hugged her so hard I brought tears to my own eyes. We both knew that we’d have to separate eventually, go our own ways to the universities we had chosen respectively. But we spent the whole summer denying that fact, and when we were finally forced to address it, neither of us really knew what to do. That hug was the last time I saw her for around six months and I remember spending almost an hour crying on my boyfriend’s shoulder after watching her leave, feeling as though a piece of me had gone with her.
Another year later and we’re still getting each other into trouble, still laughing too loudly but with a little more alcohol involved. Our relationship hasn’t changed much, simply having to adjust to phone calls and FaceTime rather than lounging around on couches and plastic deck chairs (although that still does happen occasionally).
Looking back on it all, I realised that there are three things I would tell 2016 Leah if I had the chance:
- Just because she isn’t beside you, doesn’t mean she won’t be there for you. She may not be there to wipe away tears, but she will be there at the other end of the phone to provide the advice that you may or may not want to here. She will still be your voice of reason and the person who will tell you the truth no matter what. And you will be the same for her.
- Not seeing each other for months at a time will only make the weeks that she is home one thousand times better. Days spent playing pool at the local bowling alley or sharing gossip in Wetherspoons will never get old, and you’ll only find even more stupid things to do than you could before. (Never regret the day you build a bear for one another, choosing the pink Care Bear for her because “let’s face it, if you were a Care Bear you’d definitely be the pink one with the LGBT rainbow emblazoned across its stomach”).
- There will be a considerable decrease in Papa John’s pizza sales. Although pizza will forever remain your favourite food, there is nothing like sharing an extra-large Papa John’s pizza and Tesco’s 24 Profiteroles without your best friend by your side, so Dominos will just have to do.
Our lives have changed, as have the both of us, but we’ve made sure that our friendship hasn’t. I’m proud to say that we have survived the test of distance, and I’d like to think we’ll stand the test of time too. But I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
With thanks to Louise Parker and Toby M-S.
