Friends come and go in a person’s life. The only thing you can do is to choose to remember them or not. You could remember them in a good way or a bad way. You could remember all the times you laughed and cried together, all the times you got lost in each others imaginations. You could remember your friends forever.

    I, fortunately, have a friend who I have been friends with for a very long time. We were sort of forced to be friends. Since our fathers were best friends, we were introduced to each other when we were born. Our parents named us the same name unplanned. Her name is Elizabeth and mine is Ellewynn, but the interesting thing is that both our nicknames are Ellie, except mine is spelled Elle. Our mothers thought it would be a good name for the girls who were destined to be life long friends. Not only are our names in common but our family situation. I have three brothers and she has three brothers. Our fathers went to school together and were married to short pretty ladies. All of the kids are close to the same age, and we both have a dog. When we were little, we called ourselves twins.

    I don’t really remember Ellie that much when I was little since her family lived across the state, but when we were together, we didn’t really enjoy one another’s presence. We would get into fights about where we sleep or where we sit, nothing ever major, but it still made us very angry. I was a tom boy when I was younger, so I always wanted to be outside with the boys and play in the grass or something to that extent. She always wanted to play dolls and Barbies or just stay inside. The one thing I didn’t understand about Ellie was that she was scared of fire works! I had never met any one who was scared of fire works. She would cry and cry and cry till we stopped the fun. Sometimes she left me in awe.

    As we got older we grew closer and closer. We went through our ugly stages of being too skinny or too fat or just being annoying towards each other. For awhile we really didn’t want anything to do with each other. I enjoyed her family more than he,r and she enjoyed my family more than me. We were sort of opposite instead of the same. Just because we had the same name didn’t mean we were the same people.

    In the elementary years, Ellie and her family moved to South America, where her parents were missionaries. I really didn’t care if they were in South America at this point in time because I was little, and I didn’t know how dangerous it could be to adventure into a different country. They came back to visit us once in a while, but we never went to visit them. They kept the house that they lived in before they moved, and we would visit the people who lived in their house, or when they came back for a long period of time, we would go and visit them. After about three to four years living in South America, they moved back for good.

    Ellie and I were still uncomfortable with each other just like we were before. We ended up going to a horse camp in the 6^th grade with some of her friends. I had to make my own friends at that camp because Ellie and I couldn’t stand each other. She was with her friends and I was with my friends. We talked and stuff, it was just very awkward knowing that we were supposed to be hanging out and stuff, but we weren’t. I just really didn’t want anything to do with her and her friends. By the end of the week, we had learned nothing new about each other, just that maybe we weren’t meant to be best friends. Both of us were being stubborn in our hearts towards each other.

    By the 7^th grade we didn’t see much of each other, maybe once or twice that year. It was nice when I did see her though, because that was when my parents were getting a divorce, and she acted like she cared about me and I cared about her. It was nice knowing that someone was there even though they lived across the state. During the 8^th grade we began to talk more and miss each other more when we weren’t together. The times we were together we laughed so hard we almost peed our pants. I eventually lived with her for two weeks in the summer, and she lived with me for two weeks. It was so fun, and we learned so much about each other. I especially learned a lot about Ellie.

    Ellie is now my best friend. She is one of the most down to earth people I know. She is so smart not only with school but with life. She knows who she is and what she believes in. I have never seen her cry over something stupid, like a boy or her friends, because she always knows everything will be okay. Her family supports her in everything, and she supports them. She can make you laugh in the first five minutes you are with her, and she is prettier than a flower in the spring. She is my best friend for life, and I know she will always be there for me in the hard times. Ellie will be there when I make stupid mistakes and I don’t know how to fix them.