Day 62

Calories burned at gym Friday: 524
Calories burned at gym on Saturday: 722

The year was 1997. The setting was Mrs. Stewart's 4th grade class. I was an awkward child who loved people, but never really knew how to balance a conversation. I just loved to talk and tell stories. Most of the kids in my class were used to me and, for the most part, pretty kind to me. I had lots of kids that I called "friends". However, no one really wanted to be my "best friend".

Then a new girl moved in. She was very quiet. She had big, blue eyes and long, kind of frizzy blonde hair. I started to talk to her, and the strangest thing happened. She hung around and listened.

And so it was that I discovered the person who has been my closest friend for the past 14 years.

Her name is Tressa. Having been a child of an advanced vocabulary (ahem, "nerd"), I initially remembered her name because it is pronounced like tresses of hair, of which she had (has) plenty.

She has seen me through a decade long awkward phase and listened to me ramble on about more diverse crushes than any girl has a right to claim.

She came with me when I dragged her out into the cold winter air before 5th grade Valentine's Tea so that I could demand whether she really thought my crush liked me or not.

Bad lighting, but yes this was the 5th grade Valentine's Tea. Don't judge me.

She was there during one of our hundreds of sleepovers when we stayed up until 3 in the morning doing ridiculous impressions of our orchestra teacher.

She talked sense into me on some very dark days when I felt there was no one in heaven or earth who loved me.

She was my wing-woman on yearbook day in 7th grade when I somehow got it in my head that giving a note to my crush, confessing my undying love for him, would bring him running to me. She didn't even get mad at me for jabbing her in the ribs when she looked back as we walked away.

She shared my tears the first time I discovered that I had a testimony of my Savior and put it into words.

She let me be the one to help her around the high school after her knee surgeries so that I could get out of class early and ride the elevator.

She was there when I went to my very first school dance... And when I went to my very last one.

 She was next to me in Mexico as we built houses and had our eyes opened to a side of the world that we'd never seen.

She stood up with me and sang along out loud with Josh Groban in our nose bleed seats, even when the old people around us glared.

She was the very last person I stopped to see and bravely attempted to fight back her emotions and be happy for me when I moved away from my hometown the first time... and the second time... and the third time.

She was there to hold me while I cried underneath the tree in her front yard right after I was dumped.

She stayed up late and figured out that she could call me from the castle she was staying at in Scotland if she sat in just the right spot on the front steps and fought off a dog on a damp night, and then only wanted to ask me how my job in Jackson Hole was going.

When I made what was easily one of the stupidest decisions of my life and pushed her away, she forgave me, even though I did not deserve it.

I would be lying if I said that there weren't many times that I've been jealous of her. I mean, really, look at her. She's gorgeous. She's tall and has all the right curves in all the right places. There are times when I feel like if we were in a movie she would be the beautiful star and I would be the comic relief sidekick. Amazingly, she's never seen it that way. She thinks I'm ridiculous for ever thinking that way. Naturally, I think it's absurd that she sees it any other way.

Although, particularly in the past 5 years, we've had our ups and downs, Tressa has remained my best and closest friend. God didn't grant either of us sisters, so I figure that he gave us each other instead. It could be easily argued that she knows me better than anyone else on earth. She knows about the things I am proud of, as well as many things that I am rightfully ashamed of. Somehow, she has aways seemed to be able to look past my faults and weak points. She sees the things that make me beautiful, and that is what she focuses on, no matter what size I've been or how badly my face has broken out.

I have learned a lot of things in the past year of my life. Among the most important is that I have been incredibly blessed with living angels in my life. There will be people who want to drag me away from them. I will now save those people some time and trouble by telling them all the same thing:

Go take a long walk off a short cliff, losers, I know where I belong and who will be there to stand next to me in the end.

And I know that Tressa will be one of those standing next to me no matter what comes my way.