32 years and counting

I have had the same best friend for 32 years. Tom says that's not normal (I think he means it in a good way). Normal or not, we have been best friends for 32 years. Not on and off, no gaps and re connections, 32 years of having the same person to always count on, talk to, laugh with, cry with, get in trouble with (from sharing the same bathroom stall at age 8 so we could look through each other's purses and getting busted by the school secretary to shop lifting at 17 to over drinking and puking at age, well, recently). I really do not know what I would do with out her.

We met in the first grade. Ms. Wages. My mom and I had just moved to Lubbock, Texas so that she could go to grad school at Texas Tech. We knew no one there and it was just us and our dog. When Kim and I met I had no way of knowing that her family would become mine and vice versa. Her parents really kinda took us in. Her mom typed my moms grad school papers and together they traded off fixing our lunches (I am still scarred by the lettuce, mayo, and peanut butter sandwiches), one took us to school and the other picked us up. As a kid this just seemed normal - as an adult I realize that we were building this amazing history.

When I was 12 my mom moved us here, to Austin. Typically I think that would be that. Maybe we would write for a bit, but we would make new friends and move on. But our parents saw to it that that did not happen. They flew us back and forth frequently. They would share the cost of airfare sometimes, but they made it happen. And we never lost touch, never lost our connection. We still gossiped, ran up large phone bills, wrote lots of letters (well, Kim did, I'm not very good at written correspondence!), and spent birthdays together.
Eventually we all ended up in the same town, even our parents. We talk nearly everyday. Sometimes for hours and Tom asks "what do you still have to talk about??" I don't know. Anything. Everything. We have literally been through it all together - boyfriends, death of a sibling and grandparents, marriage, births of (her) children, life. It might not be every ones normal. But I am so thankful that it is my normal.