It Takes Two...--Leah

Once upon a time there were two star-crossed lovers...just kidding, my story isn’t that
basic. Although, it may as well be as complicated and beautiful as a Disney fairytale from your childhood. So here it is, two girls from different parts of the world. One from the states, a typical “Cali Girl”, and Dutch Girl far off in the quaint city of Uden. They lived their lives very differently, one grew up in a small town and passionately played the game of soccer. The other girl lived across the world, in an even smaller town, riding her bike around town with her friends alongside. Soon both would experience a change of lifestyle. The “Cali girl” would move 80 miles away from Home, to a foreign desert land. She viewed this as world against her happiness, thinking, why do I have to leave everything I know? In the meantime, the small town Dutch Girl was facing greater struggles as she now lived in the icky heat of Florida and was attempting to learn english. By the next year, both girls had adjusted to their new life, however, for the Dutch Girl, she had to face another move and this is when our story begins. If you hadn’t already figured it out, I’m the “Cali girl”, and the Dutch Girl, that’s my best friend Jordan. Jordan and I met on her first day of school, November 5th, 2015, which we also made our Best Friend-aversary. Jordan was this exotic creature to all of us. We were all so fascinated by this girl from the far away place, the Netherlands, with her light eyes, fair skin, and perfectly wavy-curly hair which frankly could be a description of anyone but just knowing she wasn’t American made her different. Our story began that day when she asked someone to take her to the bathroom. As we were about to reach the bathroom, she goes “Oh okay. I got it from here.” And before looking around, she confidently walks straight into the boys bathroom. As you can imagine, I was dying of laughter, while Jordan walked out in complete terror of what she had just done. From that day forward, we were completely and utterly inseparable, how could we not be. We did everything together, from simple sleepovers and coffee-study dates, to adventures to Disneyland, Catalina, Washington D.C., Netherlands. Our time together was always memorable: it was full of laughter to the point of tears, jokes that no one could ever understand, blurry pictures that failed to ever capture a single perfect moment between us, and videos of our nonsense and gibberish that a photo could never capture. It was a friendship everyone wished they had and it definitely was not one I ever thought I was lucky enough to have. Nearly two and a half years after we met, I had to move again and Jordan was the one person I was not ready to leave. Jordan left every summer to go back Home, and that year she was going to be gone when we moved. It was sad to think that she would be there to ship me off but we decided that the following summer, she would take me on her annual trip to the Netherlands. We had over a year to plan this trip but at the time, it was the one thing we could hold onto. In the meantime, between the two of us, we were able to convince one of parents to reunite us at least once a month. Later that year, Jordan called me saying she had some bittersweet news and it was exactly that; the following summer, Jordan and her family were finally going to move back Home. I wanted to be happy for her but I was already living far from my best friend and now we were going to be in different time zones. This was difficult for both of us, we were officially on a

countdown, but we promised to make every moment count. The next summer came and we were off to the Netherlands. For three weeks, Jordan and I explored her home country, her hometown, and all the foods we could get our hands on. Not only was it the most amazing trip ever but travelling there comforted me knowing and seeing the home Jordan was going back to. I had the privilege of meeting her family and childhood friends but it broke my heart when I realized that for seven years she had been away from Home. After our trip, we were down to one year. We had already experienced and managed a friendship after my move giving us the confidence that we could maintain a friendship despite this distance. During our last visit, I gave her a hug, and I told her, “I’m not going to say goodbye, because one, it will never be goodbye but also because this cannot be the last time we see each other”. Over a month later, on July 2st, 2018, Jordan moved. We never did have a chance to see each other again, and as upsetting as it was, I truly believe it was meant to be that way. I miss her everyday, but I take comfort knowing she is Home and she is happy to be Home. If you watch Grey’s Anatomy, you know that line “you are my person”; Crisitina was Meredith’s person and even when Derek stole her heart, Cristina was still her person. Well Jordan is mine, she is my person and even with my Derek, she’ll always have a special place. Jordan is 5,579 miles away, and nine hours ahead of me.We don’t have the privilege of talking everyday and most of the time we do, one of us is asleep so we play this endless game of phone tag but we still know we have each other. You always hear “long distance relationships don’t work” well that’s crap because she is there and I am here and our friendship lives on. Any, and every relationship takes two people and if this relationship has taught me anything, it’s the value of a fighting for someone; and I don’t mean at each other but with each other. Our friendship is epic, it was destined to be epic, and sadly, a little complicated. So yes, it’s not exactly the typical Disney love story with the perfect ending, but it doesn’t have to be because it’s a true, and beautiful friendship. Despite our distance and change of address, we refuse to let it tear us apart. So that is my twisted, destined to be together, star-crossed, epic friendship and honestly it’s a pretty cool one. I hope you can see that when two individuals are willing to put in the effort, any relationship can survive. So with any relationship, any relationship worth the fight, put in the effort. The beautiful thing about this is that it could go for any relationship; so don’t let go, it’s too easy to let go, fight the fight and know that it will be okay. Don’t ever lose faith in someone you feel is worth the fight and effort because one day it may surprise you. I have taken what I have learned from this friendship into another relationship, and it surprised me but I’m grateful that I put in the effort despite the challenges. But you have to do your part first, it’s a two way street because it takes two...