We used to say we were sisters, even though we shared no blood. Just whispered secrets, trauma we had faced together, and the kind of laughter that made your stomach hurt. When her house no longer felt safe, mine felt like home. When my parents fought, I slept in her bed just as if it was mine. We grew up tangled together like roots.
Then three years went by – us growing on our own and not hanging out anymore. Not because we didn’t think we would ever be friends again but because family drama got obnoxious, high school got messy, and we needed to find ourselves. We both were too stubborn and too alike to be the first to say “I miss you” or “I was wrong”. So we became strangers, the type of strangers that see photos of each other and are instantly taken back to that memory, the type of strangers that even though you may think you don’t know each other now, you will always know that person, the type that you can always rely on even if it feels unusual.
Over these four years, life continued to break us in different ways. Although we grew tremendously, the trauma and family issues we had faced together during childhood didn’t go away when we stopped being friends. Somehow, when we both needed someone most we found our way back – not as the little girls we once were, but this time stronger, softer versions of those girls. Now she’s moving in with me and we get to grow as sisters again like we always knew we would one day. It feels like roots finding each other again after years of growing apart. 
We’re healing in quiet ways – late night talks in the kitchen, shared heated blankets, laughter that comes easier than it used to. We’re not trying to be the girls we were, and we’re not apologizing for who we’re becoming. For the first time ever, we are choosing ourselves, building lives that feel soft and strong at the same time, lives that we know cannot be broken. Our friendship keeps growing, not loud or in a crazy way, but through old memories, trust, patience, and the kind of love that survives anything thrown at it. We remind each other that it’s okay to want more, to want change, to live for ourselves without guilt. Together, we’ve learned that healing isn’t about forgetting the past but it’s rather about letting it shape us without defining us.
