"We Should Be Friends"

 It was said causally and to be honest I didn't give it much thought. I didn't realize that the girl behind the words didn't throw around the term friend insincerely. She befriends almost everyone she meets, and some how finds time to be a good friend to all of us.  It was on my first walk through Hyde Park. I was with a pack of girls I had never met before. I was tired from a day of travel, but thrilled by the sights of the long awaited London. A little homesick, a little unsure. "We should be friends." she said. And we would be.

Later that day a professor I came to love dearly explained that when we looked back on our pictures from our time spent abroad, we would look at the faces, not the places. That our time spent in London would be remembered fondly because of the people we shared it with. I was a little skeptical. They would all being go back to Provo together, I would be going back to Logan. Surely I would want to remember standing in monumental places more than I would want to remember a few new roommates.  But I was wrong.

(Halloween)

A few nights ago as I scrolled through some pictures of the city I learned to love, I found my eyes focusing on the girls that learned to love me.  I was filled with happy memories. Some from the 4th floor of our flat where my tiny bunk bed was. Many from the long coach rides sitting with a pack of jelly snakes on my lap. Several from my nights on kitchen crew.  I am grateful for all of the places I got to see. If I close my eyes I can still picture my first glimpse of Saint Paul's Cathedral. But the pictures I love from that day are not of the beautiful Wren design, but of the girls that would come to play lead roles in some of my happiest memories.

We email, we talk on the phone, we see each other when we can. A few days ago I received a voicemail updating me on yet another member of the London crew getting engaged. But my favorite part of the message was the end. " If I don't talk to you before Christmas I hope you have a Merry Christmas. I love you. Tell Parker hi. Your dog is cute. Bye."

So this is a thank you to all my dear friends who loved me even when I was in the worst of spirits and laughed with me until it hurt. Thank you for memories full of camping chairs, brown mustard, Hard Rock Cafes, pouring rain, Jane Austen movies, long walks, and burgers and fries. We came home from London two years ago now and we are still friends, as we should be.

Happy Christmas to my friends who shared London!!