Blog readers, meet Amy Jo:
This girl and I have been best friends for almost 17 YEARS. Crazy! We met on our first day of kindergarten on the South School playground in 1999. Me being the outspoken, mostly friendly child, walked right up to her, introduced myself, and asked if she wanted to be friends. She said yes, and thus our friendship was born. People don't always believe me when I say that's how we became best friends, but that's literally how it happened. Now, when we were younger, Ames and I couldn't have been more opposite. She was a huge tomboy, who hated wearing dresses, playing with Barbies, or playing house. I was a major girlie-girl who had a Barbie village in her basement and wore dresses as often as I could. It always struck me as odd that her and I could be such good friends despite the fact that we had NOTHING in common for a long time. As we've aged, she has become a bit more "girly" for lack of a better term, and we've discovered mutual love for some things that fuel the majority of our conversations (mainly Harry Potter.) We were in the same class from kindergarten to 4th grade, and even though we had different teachers in 4th grade, we still got to see each other at recess and eat lunch together. We made a huge deal of the fact that we were not together every single minute of the day, but we were just being overdramatic, as per usual. The transition to middle school was terrifying, because we knew we wouldn't be in every single class together, and we might only get to see each other once or twice a day. High school was a bit better, since we knew we would at least have two classes together (band and choir.) Having to say goodbye to Amy as she left Storm Lake for college while I was staying home and going to BV was really freaking hard. I was going from seeing my best friend every day since KINDERGARTEN, to maybe getting to talk a few times a week. There were lots of times that I missed having my best friend close, especially when I needed her advice, or needed her to make me laugh and get my mind off of something. As hard as it was and has been, I know it's definitely taught me to cherish the time that we do get to hang out together and be hooligans, and I would be willing to bet Ames will say the exact same thing.
In 17 years of friendship, I can only remember one BIG fight where Amy and I claimed we were "never going to be friends again." It lasted about a week. We were in middle school, it was all over something really stupid, it was really overdramatic, it happened. I'm glad it only took us a week to realize that we were both acting like idiots, and that throwing away our friendship over some stupid seventh-grade squabble would inevitably be a HUGE mistake. Even though we don't get to see each other as often as we would like, or get to talk as often as we like, I know that Amy will always be there for me, and she knows that I'm always going to be there for her. I'm really glad that kindergarten Kelsey walked up to her on the playground that first day of school, because 21 year old Kelsey has no idea what she would do without her. I can't wait to see where life takes both of us, and the crazy adventures that we are going to get into next!
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