My Friend, Happi

This is my friend, Happi. I decided to dedicate some space to my closest friends and she is the one I've had the longest. We met in our Freshman year at Valparaiso High School. We were both new and luckily got put next to each other in science (or was it health?) and instantly became friends. Her family was fabulous and treated me like we'd known each other forever. They were the normalcy that I needed in my life. I was able to be myself. I fit in. You would have to know a whole lot about my past to understand why this meant so much to me. Anyway, we spent every moment together that we could. I even took dance classes from her mom. It was awesome! During the summer Happi got the chance to perform at an amusement park. She left and I missed her like crazy! I bugged my parents so much that my dad did something totally out of character and bought me a bus ticket to go see her. YIPEE!!! It was the worst bus ride but totally worth it. I sat next to a woman for 17 hours to Pennsylvania that had been on the bus since California. I also had just tried water skiing the day before so I was sore from head to toe. By the way, still can't ski. I was a bit worried that I would be in the way but not so. I hung out and watched the shows until Happi was done working and then we were on our own to do what ever we pleased. Luckily we were (and still are) not the kind of people that would do anything inappropriate, so we stayed out of trouble. We felt so grown up being on our own. I'm sure some of the older kids were looking out for us but they hid it well acting like we didn't exist. We had a great time. After the summer was over we started back to school. I was really looking forward to everything that we were going to do. It didn't happen though. My parents informed me that we were moving. I moved shortly after school started. We stayed as good of friends as we could. We saw each other a few times when I could talk my mom into driving to Valpo. We lost touch now and then but always seemed to find one another again. One of the things that I really appreciate about all of my friends is that we don't have to talk all the time to still be friends. That is true with me and Happi. We can lose touch for years and get in contact with each other and talk about anything. I know she cares about me and my life and I'm sure she knows I feel the same way. Thank you, Happi, for your friendship all these years.