Some people don’t just walk into your life, they quietly rewrite it.
People say some connections are meant to happen and looking back, I know they’re right.
She had been there for years, a familiar face to everyone. I was the new girl from up north, trying to find my place in a church that already felt like a family. We came from different backgrounds yet somehow our paths still crossed.
At the start, it wasn’t perfect. Awkward moments, rocky starts, painful silences. However overtime, something shifted and before long if you saw one of us, the other probably wasn’t far behind.
Sometimes I’d stop and question, Are you for real?
How could a girl I’d never known become someone I couldn’t imagine not knowing?
In The Bible, it says “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul,” and I never truly understood it until I met her. Some people don’t just make you laugh, they make you lighter, make life easier to carry. They remind you that you don’t walk the narrow path alone.
And as we got closer, she had one mission for me that never seemed to change: convincing me to do athletics.
For two whole years, the same suggestion, “You should join.” For those two years my answer remained.
“No.”
It wasn’t because I didn’t want to run (I knew I had potential) but because I was scared of failing and being laughed at by people I no longer cared about but still feared. But she didn’t know that. She just kept believing I could do it.
Are you for real?
Who would believe in someone that much?
Eventually, I realised something. I’d spent too much time worrying about the opinions of people who barely knew how to say my name, almost missing the encouragement of someone who truly cared.
So I signed up.
Then came the news, she was moving to the States and our time was running out. I thought to myself, from day one to where we are now, all the takeover services, all the presentations and all the jokes. It would all be done. And I’m bummed and I’ll definitely miss her but instead of tears and saying goodbyes, we’ll make the time we have count.
Life has a strange way of reminding us that not every moment lasts forever. Sometimes you don’t realise you’re living through a memory until it’s almost over.
Another verse says “Iron sharpens iron, as one man sharpens another” Real friendships aren’t always comfortable, sometimes it’s someone seeing potential in you when you don’t see it yourself.
When I first met her, “Are you for real?” was a question of disbelief. Now it is a question of gratitude.
Because out of all the places I could’ve ended up after leaving Liverpool, I found a friend who challenged me, encouraged me, and quietly changed my perspective on life.
That’s what a real friendship is, not finding someone who’s exactly like you, but finding someone who helps you become someone better.