A Letter to a Late Friend

I think of you when I paint.

Because one time we spent an entire weekend painting your bedroom the most god-awful lime green color. Not sure what we were thinking but we had the most fun painting and mainly giggling.

I think of you when I sew.

I remember when you were taking a sewing class and it looked so complicated. At the time I didn't want to try, but you assured me that I'd pick it up if I tried. Well, I finally did, and with every stitch I think of that moment.

I carry you with me any time an Avenged Sevenfold song comes on. I think of how many times we shared headphones on the back of the bus to track thinking we were so grunge. Don't even get me started about 3Oh!3.

You are with me when I watch musicals. We shared so many inside jokes and fun during Grease, The Music Man, Anything Goes, and 42nd Street. Once a theater kid. Always a... You get it.

Any time I see kids playing basketball, I think of the time we shaved Coach Fisher's head after going to State Finals. He was such a champ even if we placed 2nd.

When I drink lemonade, I think of the Popcorn festival and making lemonade shakeups together until our fingers were stuck together.

Cornfields even remind of you because in the summers, we would walk aimlessly and talk until we reached one edge of town (finding a cornfield) because what else was there to do?

When I think about who I was as a child, I don't really even see myself as a whole, but as a million pieces made of others who melded and shaped me to be who I am today.

I am nothing but an amalgamation of all the people who I have ever known and loved.

So many pieces of you are here even though it's been way too long since I have seen your face, heard your laugh, felt your presence.

Friends forever, we always said.

But you're gone now and we are all left with a {you} shaped hole that can never be filled or replaced.

I regrettably couldn't even tell you the last time we spoke or hung out, but I am thankful for the time that we got. Even a second of knowing you have left me better off.

I love you like a sister.

I miss you.

Rest easy.

Love,

Jules