“My best friend moved to New York a few days ago to study for...

“My best friend moved to New York a few days ago to study for her PhD.  She was like seventy percent of my social life.  We’ve known each other since we were seventeen.  We went to debating competitions together.  We became feminists together.  We helped each other’s thinking along.  We used to walk for hours, talking about things we didn’t even have names for yet.  We were too young to be limited by other people’s definitions.  We hadn’t learned enough yet.  So there was a lot of: ‘Do you ever feel this way?’, and ‘Am I crazy, or is this happening?’  We were just figuring it all out.  We also learned to talk about our feelings, but in a logical way.  Once you have tools to break down emotions into little bits and pieces, you realize: ‘Oh, that’s why I’m doing this.  That’s why I can’t cry in front of people.  That’s why I always feel the need to prove myself.’  So we really grew up together.  We took our first baby steps into being more aware of the world, and how it limits our thinking.  But honestly, we spent most of our time just hysterically laughing.  We both have this absurd, inappropriate sense of humor.  And we’d just build on each other for hours. I’m just really lucky to have such a close friend.  I know it’s a rare thing.  And we’re already plotting our reunion.  If I work at my job for another two or three years, I’ll qualify for a transfer, and they have offices in New York.”
(Amsterdam, The Netherlands)