Friends- By Bella Verdesco

     A friend...someone who you can always confide in, who can bring you up when your down, and is always there through the thick in thin.

     Growing up in elementary school, I never had that many friends. I felt like I didn't fit in and I could never find my people. My childhood was rocky due to this. I never had that one person I could gossip with, tell all of my secrets to, or even play Barbie with. I was lonely. Then middle school hit and everything changed.

     Middle School was my savior. I started finding my intellectuals and making friends. I was going out more, broadening my friend group, and expanding my horizons. I gained and lost friends along the way but, I knew that would happen. People grow and change, and you don't always fit together like a puzzle piece. However, I had my main friend group and I thought it would be this way forever. Us three were inseparable from one another and shared everything.

     High School was when things started to get messy. Freshman year I lost my friend group. I was torn and didn't know what to do. I didn't know anyone in my new classes, I didn't know who to sit with during lunch, or who to hang out with after school. As the year went on, however, I made friends that I knew I would have for a lifetime.

     You see, there are three main friends in my life that have stuck by me through everything... Sam, Jordyn, and Reese.

     I met Sam in eight grade and we were not the best of friends. We tolerated one another but never had that strong connection. Freshman year changed that though. She has become one of my closest friends through-out these past few years and I love her dearly. She is energetic, sarcastic, spunky, and can always spark up a conversation about her favorite boy bands, or use a pick-up line on you. She's the person who let me sit at her lunch table on my first day of school when I had nowhere else to sit and "took me under her wing," and I am so thankful for her doing that.

     Next up is Jordyn, and where do I begin with her. I first met her in our 6th-grade honors math class, where we sat next to each other due to our last names. She stuck with me all throughout Middle School and even into High School. She is unapologetic, always speaks her mind, and is so smart it is not even funny. She was there with me through my first relationship down to my current one. She always knows how to make her presence known in a room and you can always catch her watching Fear Factor.

     Last but not least is Reese. I met Reese in 7th grade in my Language Arts Class and we immediately hit it off. She is super sweet, funny, and always knows how to make you feel better when you're sad. She has helped me through all of my boy drama to stress about school. She's the person who will listen to you no matter what and is always a shoulder you can lean on.

     Friends will come and go throughout your life, and I have come to realize this. However, my three girls have taught me the true meaning of friendship and I am ever so grateful to have them in my life. They mean the world to me, and I cannot ask for better friends.

     So to my three girls, I just want to say I love ya'll a lot and would not be able to survive High School without you guys.