When I was about 13, I went to dinner with a friend and a friend of hers, whom I met for the first time. I’ll call her Jill. Well, I mean, that's her name.

Anyway, we instantly hit it off. She was one of those people who instantly make an impression. Within five minutes I already wanted to be just like her, or at least be her friend. I went home that night and wrote in my diary “Tonight I met a girl named Jill and we are totally going to be best friends, I can feel it! She is so fully cool and such a rad chick!” (Words like “totally”, “fully” and “rad” were the basis of my vocabulary back then). And so it came to be that we became the best of friends. She was one of those girls who just inspired people with her energy and magnetic personality. She was wise beyond her years. She knew who she was and could care less what people thought of her, which made her all the more cool.

The years passed, as they do, and we grew up. She went to school in Northern California and I went to San Diego. She got married straight out of college and I went off and traveled the world. Somehow we lost touch. It wasn’t a conscious thing, it just happened. Life happens.

28 years later, after moving back to the OC, something made me think of her. I had no idea where she was. I had to wonder, does she have kids? (I am sure) Is she happy? (Definitely). Has she won the Nobel Peace Prize and changed the world for the better? (Probably). So I randomly sent her parents a Christmas card hoping they’d give it to her and she’d contact me. Sure enough, she did. Where are you living?” I asked. I was waiting to hear that she was across the country or in another country even. She replied, “I’ve been back in Orange County for 12 years.” It turns out she lives less than 3 miles from us. All this time, and I never knew! We immediately made a date to meet and catch up. When I saw her again, time stood still. We were 13 again. We laughed and told stories for hours. This time, however, instead of talking about surfing and Boy George, we discussed brain tumors and babies. She even recounted a story of giving a kidney to her father. Wow, life sure does happen.

Since that day, her family has become part of my own family and vice versa. She has four kids and they are all as outstanding as she is. How could they not be? I am in the baby stage of my life and her kids are entering tween territory. We both claim to be envious of the other. She is envious that I traveled extensively in my 20’s and 30’s, and I am envious that she has so much experience raising kids and seems to know everything about motherhood. She never says no when I need help, and somehow always makes me believe I can accomplish anything. I guess when you get older and have a family, you start thinking about the people who truly matter and are worth spending your valuable time with. I can’t begin to explain how happy I am to have found her again. And although we lost all those years in between, there are still so many more to come. How totally rad is that?