10% Serious: Our friendship is a legal adult

Rachel, Stephanie, and I became friends in seventh grade at confirmation. We all went to different schools at the time, but going to church twice a week brought us together. At first we were just church friends, and then we were all the time friends, and then we were pretty much a part of each other's families.

We've been through all of our awkward phases:

Rachel's haircut in 1999.
All of us trying to figure out how much of your eyebrows you should pluck.
When Stephanie and I made our own costumes for the homecoming dance because it was medieval themed.
Dramatic and uncomfortable encounters with boys, like that one time I broke up with Rachel's date for her over the phone and he never realized he was talking to me.
When I wore about a quarter of an inch of eyeliner every day.
Overall shorts, braids, and occasional tube socks.

Here's a list of some of the important things we've done/been through:

high school graduations
went on long trips together
supported each other through loss
grieved together
annoyed each other like crazy
made each other cry because of laughing too hard or being too sappy
been to The Coffee Bean enough times to keep it in business
shared faith together
celebrated with each other on our 21st birthdays, and almost all of the ones from 12 years old until I moved away
they stood up for me at our wedding
drove around TO blasting Bohemian Rhapsody and wondering why we weren't the most popular girls in high school
encouraged each other as we pursued the careers we had wanted since high school, and now we encourage each other because we have them,
continued to be best friends and connected to each other, despite me living so far away from them

This year we will have been best friends for 18 years. Our friendship is old enough that it could buy a lottery ticket, go to college, or vote. We've been friends now much longer than we haven't. I am seriously grateful.

Here's some fun pics over the years: