Emily

So, this is slightly out of order ... but then not really. So, I met Emily when I was at BYU. She worked with me at the 4am job. She was on the same crew as Christina, but we still got to know each other okay. And Emily was a pretty new freshman at the time, and still fresh out of high school. And Emily went to a pretty small high school out in the middle of nowhere and so she was a bit ... awkward. But we still totally bonded, because guess what? I am awkward too.

Now, I hate to say this, but I kinda can't remember what made us hang out first. I think that what happened was that she and I bonded at work over how we quoted the movie "She's the Man" all the time. Then, we saw that a new movie with Channing Tatum (who is the lead male in "She's the Man" and is so totally smoking hot!) was coming out called "Step Up" and we decided we needed to go to it together. I think maybe that we had watched "She's the Man" before this together. So when it was finally in the dollar theatre we walked up there and saw it together. And it was awesome. And then we walked home. Funny story though, when we were on our way to the theatre we saw this guy walking along carrying a set of bagpipes. We were in a very goofy mood so we stopped him and asked him to play a little diddy - and he DID! It was the most amazing thing ever. I think that to this day Emily wishes she had gotten that guy's phone number.

We would hang out every once in a while after that, but then she left to go to a semester abroad in England. And then I graduated and moved here. I didn't really give much thought to her on a day to day basis (that sounds mean, but you know what I mean) until one day in church, I looked over and who did I see? You guessed it - Emily! It shocked the heck out of me. I was so not expecting to see anyone that I knew from school there, but it was so delightful. It was amazing.

So we started hanging out in Oregon too. She was here because the semester abroad was pretty expensive and she had to spend time working again to make money to go to school some more, and her Dad lived in the area so she was staying with him. We spent a lot of time watching movies and doing things that I didn't do with my other friends while watching movies - like talking through the whole thing and then later, analyzing the crap out of them. It was always way fun. Then she eventually earned enough to go back to school, but whenever she comes back to visit the family or go to the dentist or whatever, she makes sure to visit me. In fact, a lot of the times she stays with me :D One of the things I love most about Emily is that she is never afraid to be herself. Ever. And since she has gone back to school this last time she has really figured out what she likes and who she is and she isn't afraid to be that. She is such a good friend, always there to offer advice and listen when I need it. Also, she lets me live vicariously through her adventures at BYU in the fun new dance crowd she is in.

From her I learned to always be myself and to not care what other people think - if they don't like me for who I am then I shouldn't want to be friends with them anyway. I learned that it can be fun to do something that you normally don't do and to go out of your comfort zone. I learned that things that were once out of your comfort zone can actually, over time, become part of your comfort zone. I learned that it can take time to find out who you really are, and that is okay, you can still make great friends on your way.