In 2019, my freshman year of high school, I joined a club volleyball team. I knew next to nothing about the sport as I only had one year of experience. It was nerve wracking being in a gym full of hundreds of girls who knew what was going on, coaches shouting things you have never heard of, and being asked to do things you don’t know how to do. I thought I was alone in a sea full of blonde white girls until I noticed another girl that looked like me. 

She looked oddly familiar and it wasn’t until she came up to me that I realized it was because we went to the same school. “Hey,” she said “What’s up,” I replied, unsure what to say since I didn’t even know her name. “You’re new right… the girl that just moved here.” “Yeah, how did you know?” She proceeded to inform me that so and so had mentioned me and she recognized me so she decided to come say hi. Then that’s how we were for weeks on end. We would have boring small talk about nothing at volleyball then never really see each other at school. She was kind of weird though and she wasn’t very good at volleyball so I didn’t care too much whether we were friends or not. 

Before I knew it we were talking everyday about everything. We would talk before school, after school, ride to practice together, hangout on the weekends and she suddenly became one of my best friends. I couldn’t tell you how or why but we bonded in a way that I still to this day have never felt with anyone else. We grew up together playing club volleyball, then school volleyball until we both quit and decided to start working. We got different jobs, but if anything I see her more now than I ever did. 

I remember last summer she lived with me for around three weeks because her mom was out of town. In that time I got closer with her than I could have ever imagined- considering how we met. In those three weeks we learned everything about each other. We were constantly together, yet I never got tired of her. We would go places, do things, meet people. We told each other our deepest darkest secrets that no one else has ever known. She knows everything about me and I know everything about her. She was like the sister I had but better in every way possible. I felt like I could talk to her about any and everything. She had the greatest impact on me as she taught me the values of true friendship. I feel like myself when I’m around her, like I don’t have to hold back. She accepts the good, the bad and the ugly and I couldn’t be happier to call her my best friend.