This is a pretty good story, if I do say so myself. The summer before senior year of high school I attended Girls State in our state capital of Lincoln, Nebraska. I spent a week in the UNL dormitories with a large number of girls from all across the state. We learned about and even participated in our government system within that week. I believe I became the secretary of agriculture for the city of Johnson, which was the floor that I was living on. It was a title I was handed since I didn't run for anything, so don't be impressed. It was really unique experience and I would encourage any high schooler to apply for it. You'd think I would simply insert this is where I met my best friend, but that is not the case.
While at Girls State, I met a boy. My dad was floored too. To be fair, Boys State happened concurrently and there were a few days when we had activities with the boys also. One of my fellow classmates, DJ, was at Boys State and I do believe he's the one who introduced me to the boy who would become my first and only high school boyfriend. It turned out that boy only lived about 30 minutes from my house, which was truly shocking since people came from all over the state for this event. Since we did live so close together, we happened to know some of the same people. One of those individuals is one of my very best friends to this day, but this boyfriend introduced me to another person who is also my best friend.
You have to understand that in northeast Nebraska, the legal activities for high schoolers on the weekends are fairly limited. Because of that, I remember spending a significant amount of timing cruising main street. My boyfriend and I climbed into a giant, red Ford vehicle known as Frank the Tank to meet some of his friends. We were in the very back seat of that vehicle when one Emilee Peterson told everyone to be quiet because we were going to listen to her brand new favorite song. Alexa, play "Springsteen" by Eric Church. That was the song we listened to over and over again as we went up and down main street in good ol' West Point, Nebraska. I didn't get to know Emilee much that night, but apparently we became fast friends.
That boyfriend dumped me just a few months later, but Emilee was still there. I hadn't talked to her a whole lot since that night I met her, but that changed quickly. I moved to Oklahoma at the end of that summer to start at OSU and suddenly we were best friends. I cannot remember how that actually happened, but I'm thankful every single day that it did. There isn't a single person - that I'm not related to of course - that's been more loyal in the last 10 years than Emilee. She's the kind of best friend who I don't have to talk to every single day, even if that would be our preference. We always pick up right where we left off and there are very few friendships in this life that have that ability, especially to the extent that we push it sometimes. To know her is to love her and I hope everyone has an Emilee Peterson in their life because there is nothing quite like it in this life.
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