a friendiversary

During the early months of our working relationship/friendship, when we were in the midst of producing The Cate Morland Chronicles throughout a whole summer and weren't roommates yet, I was at Amanda's house. She gave me a few magazines she had read and thought I might like and she also gave me a card/note. I read the card in my car after I left her house and it put me into a spiral of tears and confusion. I hadn't had a terrible day or week, and there were no special occasions happening in my life. She had written that card and given it to me for essentially no reason other than to express kindness and appreciation to me. I don't think i'd ever received something from anyone before just because they wanted to be nice to me, with no other obligations attached.

At the worst times in my life, Amanda is there, crawling into my bed with me, letting me talk, letting me not talk. Even if I've had a huge cry, she's always able to make me laugh through the tears and give me a good distraction. I've gone through relapses and panic attacks and things I always used to go through alone. But now, no matter what, she's always there.

This is how my friendship with Amanda has been from the beginning. She's always around and she has always wanted me around whether in-person or via text. If you want a lot of alone time, Amanda would not be a great person to be roommates with, because she loves to talk and have someone to do things with or perform things to. She's constantly making jokes and yelling dramatically, and I'm not sure i've ever not heartily laughed for a day I've known her. Our personalities are almost complete opposites but we complement each other with those differing traits and our similar tastes.

Relationships are work and they can be difficult at times. I've learned this a lot with Amanda, as we've continually chosen to make this friendship work and communicated through things and made space for each other in our lives. And it has been soooo good and worth it.

Some people might think it's a little cheesy or silly to celebrate a friendiversary, but why wouldn't celebrate one of my most cherished relationships? I'm very grateful to have this wonderful human in my life, and I'm looking forward to many more years of friendship to come.

I am not sure anyone else will read this post but Amanda, at some point when she decides to come on my blog again to have a good laugh (so many of my old posts are SO cringey so its fair).