Sunday column: Best friends

Hollie and I were lucky to find each other at St. Frederick.

There's no one else who could have been my maid of honor.

As the Peach Festival rolls out its inaugural Sunday lineup, I plan to take full advantage of the day's events.
You'll probably see me at the Peach-Eating Contest (observing, not competing) and definitely at the Pet Show with my best friend, Hollie.
Any time Hollie and I have a chance to spend a day together, it feels like old times. We've been friends for 13 years, and our relationship has been one of the best things in my life ever since the day we met.
It was orientation day at my high school; we were both incoming freshmen, and we immediately hit it off. Throughout the four years of high school, we were inseparable. There were several times we even passed ourselves off as sisters.
The thing about having a friendship as tried-and-true as ours is that you see the other person at her best and at her worst, and the other person sees you in those same ways.
My friendship with Hollie hasn't always been hunky-dory. But things have always worked themselves out, and our relationship only gets stronger.
Over the course of the past 13 years, Hollie and I have lived through some especially significant moments, including this abbreviated list:

Mission trips to Mexico
Hollie and I were involved with a youth group throughout high school that took an annual mission trip to one of the most poverty-stricken areas in Mexico. It was a large group of high school kids led by a few adults, including the church's fantastic youth ministers. In Mexico, we would build houses for families who were living in shacks made of any found materials they could scrape together. Although the one-room houses were rustic by our standards, they were mansions to the people we built them for.
We went on several of these mission trips, and each one was an incredibly moving experience. It was one of the only times in my life where I've been in a group of people (and remember, these were high school kids) where there was virtually no pettiness, gossiping or negativity. It was as if we all behaved the way we were truly meant to; we appreciated all the people who were there and the different strengths they brought to the group.
The mission trips not only provided a tremendous service to the Mexican families we were working with, they also opened our eyes to the innumerable gifts and blessings we have in our lives. It's something I'll never forget.

She's a lifesaver, literally
One summer, Hollie and I went on a trip to the beach. In the weeks before the vacation I'd been sick with bronchitis, but I was on the mend. Although I was still using an inhaler to ease my labored breathing, for the most part I felt much better.
Hollie and I spent our days on the beach, both out in the waves and lounging on the sand. For some reason, we decided to swim out to a sandbar we could see in the distance one afternoon. Years of swimming lessons had made us both into strong swimmers, so we had no reservations about the distance. However, there was the small matter of my lingering bronchitis.
About halfway there, I suddenly couldn't breathe. I was not getting any air, and I panicked. I don't remember saying anything to her, but Hollie immediately grabbed me and swam me back to shore, where I desperately puffed away at my inhaler until my constricted lungs decided to re-open.
I don't know how I would have made it if she hadn't been there. So, I guess I owe her my life — which really isn't that bad of a thing.

Traditional milestones
Then there have been the standard milestones in a person's life: proms, graduations, bad break-ups, new jobs, etc. Hollie has been there for them all.
College graduation was particularly important for both of us. We were more than ready to move on to our chosen careers (although neither of us knew what exactly that would be) and put college behind us. I traveled to Dallas for her graduation from Southern Methodist University, and the next weekend, she came here to Ruston for my graduation from Louisiana Tech.
We commiserated through those summer months following graduation in which we'd think murderous thoughts every time we heard the question, "So now what are you going to do?" But then, we both figured it out.

I know that finding a friend like Hollie is a true blessing in my life. I try hard not to take it for granted and to appreciate every memory, every conversation, every photo we've shared. We've seen each other through good times and bad times for the past 13 years, and we've got a lifetime to go.