Friends For Real



This girl...THIS GIRL. Cassey and I are going on 13 years of friendship - 13!! We met when we were in our first years of college, free from responsibility and high on life and faith in Jesus. We were assigned as summer missionaries in Riverton, at different churches, with guy partners. We bonded that summer and became fast friends. Deep friends. Friends that laid on the living room floor late at night in the house where I was staying, telling each other things we had never told anyone before. Friends that hid under path bridge at camp during the Counselor Hunt laughing so hard, I'm pretty sure I peed my pants. Friends that promised to do mission work together the next summer and planned out where we would go and what we would do. Friends that bawled when the summer was over and we parted ways. Real friends.

Then life happened, or got in the way, and we found ourselves walking down different paths. Angry and hurtful words caused months and years of not talking and I thought, "Well, another friend bites the dust." A late night phone call on her part and bravery on both our parts found us catching up with each other one night in Memphis before I flew home after visiting another friend in Arkansas. We closed the gap by a few inches that night but life took her to Japan for three years and we were content being Facebook friends. She returned stateside and finally settled in Florida. By then we were pretty good on FB and when I found myself with some extra money, I bit the bullet and went to visit her. I scheduled the visit at the end of another trip...for only four days in case it didn't go well. I got to meet her husband and two kids and it was a great time catching up!

I just got home from visiting her again in Florida, a full week this time, and it was the best vacation I've had in a long time. With Cassey, I can completely be myself - no masks, no pretenses, no being fake - the real me. She is as sarcastic and snarky as I am and we laugh a lot. Her kids call me Auntie Angie and I love them. I got to know her husband a lot better on this trip and we laughed together too. I can't wait to go back for another visit! My friendship with Cassey is fun. It's easy. It's real.


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