Reflections on Friendship

This morning, I woke up to my friend's text. She said, "OMG Ava, I just found our emails from the first few days of freshman year." This was written in all caps by the way. She forwarded me our exchange. I was emailing her, asking whether she could help me print my french homework since she was still at the library. Then our conversation took off from there. We became really close friends from that moment onwards. 

I reread our chain of emails. It's something I don't frequently do since I have a bad habit of dwelling on the past. But my friend brought it to my attention this morning and the first thing that struck me was the formality of our exchange. We began each letter with "Dear" and ended with "Thank you." We wrote in complete sentences and we evidently placed great effort into the crafting of each sentence. Discerning the stark difference between how we communicated during the first few days of high school versus how we communicate today is truly a testament to the evolution of our friendship. 

With CX, I learned abbreviations. We have our own series of styles and ways of texting. We drop articles and mess with grammar rules for simplification, allowing the rapid nature of our exchanges to flow out of our heads onto the screen at an adequate rate. Hesitancy or difficulty in describing something is depicted over text with the word like. Our favorite emoji: 😂. In fact, texting over the years with CX has quickly made the laughing crying face my most popular emoji. With CX, I use this emoji to express true laughter and happiness. Contrarily, for others with whom I'm less familiar, this emoji has taken on a different meaning, as I learned from CX. It has become my nervous/hesitant go-to. 

Our texts have evolved with our friendship. From something formal to something other people might struggle to follow, perhaps the character of our texts reveals the nature of our friendship. In fact, one of my friends in the class of 2019 told me once, "I don't understand how you and CX are friends. You're just…polar opposites." And I agree with her to a certain extent. While I'm usually early to commitments, CX is more last minute. While my room is spotless, CX lives in perpetual disorganization. While I socialize when I'm done with homework, CX is one of the most hardworking people I know and she keeps working after homework, sleeping in the early morning hours of the following day. CX and I may differ in certain regards but the way our friendship has evolved reflects the fact that fundamentally, there are values, principles, and beliefs through which we relate. Or perhaps it reflects the hardiness of friendship: it can surpass what others may deem polar opposites. 

I'm forever grateful for CX. She's the person whom I trust most in high school and she's my closest friend. She's influenced many of the values I've developed over high school and showed me what hard work actually entails.