Happy Birthday Mich!!

 

To My Dear Michele:

Happy 20th Birthday!!

Love: Me

[Right after graduation]

Michele and I have known each other since elementary school but became friends in middle school and really close friends in high school. Michele is the kind of friend that will beat up someone if they hurt you. She is the kind of friend that would get out of bed in the middle of the night to talk if that’s what you needed. She is the kind of friend that sees the good in you and has your back.

[At my graduation partayyy]

My senior year in high school didn’t start out exactly like a fairytale. But Michele and I had similar schedules and we practically live in each other's backyard. We both took 4 classes at school, went home for lunch, and then headed to the middle school for the Career Study program. We began carpooling and eating lunch together every day and she truly was my best friend. She was there when I was struggling. When I couldn’t trust people and I had very few friends, she was there. She encouraged me to be a little rebellious – and I definitely needed it. We skipped Career Study to watch Obama’s inauguration and then an unhealthy amount of Friends. We also skipped once to go get our nails done and watch an unhealthy amount of Friends. We went to see No Doubt and Paramore the week before graduation. And after graduation we went to the local diner together. We did everything together and wherever we went, we sang on the way.

[At the concert… give us a break… there was a monsoon that day]

That’s how Michele and I met. We both love to sing. In middle school we were both in Chorus and in 9th grade (which is still in the Middle School in our district) we both signed up for Chorus Major. As we bonded that year we had the opportunity to sing a song together for a select concert. We got to sing it again at our End-of-the-Year Awards Assembly as a farewell song to our friends and teachers before we moved on to the big-bad high school. Our senior year we carried on the tradition and sang together at our Baccalaureate-type night called Reflections. Both times my dad accompanied us on the piano. Singing with her those two times was scary because we were in front of hundreds and then thousands of our peers, but was also so fulfilling. We were finding closure to two important stages in our life in the best way we knew how with our best friend by our side. If I had footage I’d share it, but somehow we never got it. In 9th grade we sang the very popular For Good from Wicked and in 12th grade we sang our own, vamped up, better than the original (if I can say so myself) rendition of The Climb by Miley Cyrus. To this day we still harmonize without thinking as we listen to the radio :) It’s perfect.

[Singing together at Reflections]

Since college we haven’t seen each other or spent as much time together as we used to, but we both understand. When we do see each other and catch up it’s as if nothing has ever changed and we pick back up where we left off. Michele is a beautiful girl with a  smart, lovely, hilarious, adventuresome, loyal, down-to-earth, spunky personality.
And I love her :)

[At the middle school, inside a moon bounce, on field day]

Happy Birthday Mich! Sorry I can’t be there to celebrate in person :(
We’ll live it up in a few weeks when you’re home - my treat :)