A friendship that changed my life

Well to start off, I wanted to talk to y'all about a girl I met in college. I will be the first to say I was terrified going off to college. I have always been such a homebody and loved spending time with my family. Starting my freshman year at East Carolina, I immediately connected with Devin’s group of friends. They were so loving and welcoming. I just knew I had made all the friends I needed to make. After a while, I kept getting the feeling that I was missing out on things on campus because I was always off campus hanging out with Devin and his crew. Well, being the typical freshman I was, I decided I was going to sign up and join EVERYTHING. I was blessed enough with the experience of being on the ECU Club Dance team for two years. These girls will forever have such a special place in my heart. Anywhooo…I remember talking to Devin one day and telling him I felt so lost because I just had not found my “best friend” that everyone talks about finding when they go off to school. Of course I had Kandice from day one of college and she is still to this day like a sister to me, but she had her little “click of friends”. I had a lot of really close friends, but not that ONE best friend.

 

I remember one night, a couple of girls from the dorm decided to go out to dinner. I decided I would invite these two girls that lived diagonal from Kandice and I that I hadn’t really gotten a chance to know to come. They all came and we had a wonderful time! After that night, I kept running into one of the girls that lived diagonal from me that had come to dinner. We still didn’t really know each other that well, so it was still that awkward “hey how ya doing” passing in the dorm shower room and in the hall ways kind of friend ship.

Well…Everyone….Meet Jessica Pate.

There was the one day I was feeling really down about who knows what now, and I asked Jessica if she wanted to ride with me over to see Devin and his friends. On the way over there, I completely broke down to her and told her how I didn’t feel like I had found my place in college yet and then she broke down and said she felt the same way! Hahaha Who knew God would use two young emotional females to start up the beginning of a new and wonderful friendship.

 

Since this day, the two of us have been inseparable. If we aren’t together, people ask where the other one is. We are usually up to no good and always looking for something to get into! Whether it be stealing a dorm mate’s mattress, tying our neighbor’s door together so neither one could get out, having a dance party to ourselves, stealing walnuts from Devin’s neighbor’s house (sorryJ), making our other roommate fake an arrest and ask Devin if he claimed her (yes we had an officer help us with this), and many other things I should probably not share with the world hahaha. There is never a dull moment.  We decided we were going to live together in an apartment after our freshman year. We have now been roommates for 3 years! I can hardly believe that much time has passed!

Since we’ve been friends, we have seen each other experience heart breaks, tragedies, celebrations, engagements, etc. What I have learned from our friendship is that a good friend doesn’t always have to say the right thing…they just need to be there. I personally have had a rollercoaster of emotion over the past couple of years and she is one of the people who I remember always being a constant friend.

While being at East Carolina, I did join a church in Greenville. In the beginning of mine and Jessica’s friendship, God was never the center of our life. We were mainly concerned with what we were going to do Thursday-Saturday night. Throughout our time going to church together and learning more about the gospel, God is now the center of both of our lives and usually end up in deep discussions about God and the great works he has done in our life and how we can better serve him. It is such a blessing to have a friend who shares the same love for Christ as I do.

Our friendship is one that indescribable. Our jokes, not many people would understand…Our talks are usually strange and you wouldn’t follow…We can sit across the room from each other and one of us starts laughing and we already know what the other is giggling at.

There are many friends that will come and go throughout life…I am aware of this for it has already happened. But it is friendships like this that are for life. Jessica is one of my bridesmaids and I can’t even imagine my wedding day without her. She not only has a special place in my life but also in Devin’s life. He looks at her as his little sister. Devin has been a wonderful aid in helping Jessica find peace in a lot of aspects in her life. We always say that Jessica is going to have to live right next door to us one day because he doesn’t know what me and her are going to do without each other hahaha (and because I’ll have to do her hair/make up every morning before she goes to work).

I am forever grateful God puts such special people in my life. I have prayed hard for a Godly group of friends and he has surely provided as he said he would.