Best Friend

The boarding school experience has treated me with a rollercoaster ride of discoveries among which were heartbreaks and betrayals. I learned the hard way that just because people promise friendship and loyalty that this is what they will deliver. My first year abroad was hell on earth, literary. Numerous stolen projects, and ultimatums that were defining the friendship status, endless tears, and hopeless dreams pretty much summarize my first year at St George’s. My strongest support system were the teachers, who believed in me and the milestones that are steadily being achieved. Yet was it enough for a fourteen-year-old?

There was one girl that was boarding with me, and she had her room on my floor. She was African-American, originally from Haiti, and her mother worked at the United Nations. She was in most of my classes, and had a very international circle of friends. There was one night, that to be honest I do not remember who came to whom, but I remember pouring my heart out and crying like a baby in front of her. That night was the beginning of a friendship that is lasting for seventeen years and counting. Ever since that night we have become inseparable. We have decided to become restaurant critics and rate the quality of food and services at the places we could afford when we were out in the city. We have shared cinema nights and the love for Grey’s Anatomy, and had together started a club for extra school credit, where we would teach mindfulness and relaxation, struggling to keep a straight poker face. I had finally found someone special who understood me and most importantly we accepted each other as we were.

The nights that we have spent fortunetelling and dreaming of a big voyage by boat, dreams inspired by Titanic. The anecdotes of our life be at the fancy Spring Ball of a five-star luxurious hotel, or on the bus with an unpaid ticket, or on a school trip stuck while the car broke down and our classmate started singing – these have no limits and no end.

My parents, at first, could not understand the interracial friendship. Coming from countries, where this is barely even seen or common, they had many reservations. Yet, I did not need to spend a lot of time to convince them to reconsider their bias. They met my friend and immediately have accepted her into our family.

This person is beautiful inside and out, has since high school moved mountains of achievements and has been the support system to my heart and soul while we were both trying to live through this estranged experience of a boarding school. Just like that in one night, I had a won a lottery ticket with my best friend. Thank you.