Project Midwest 2.0:

Right now, I am sitting down at my favorite coffee shop in my sleepy little hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. I just dropped my best friend off at a friend of her parents’ house for dinner, and I’ll be picking her up in about an hour or so and we’ll continue in our week of plans.
Yesterday, she arrived at my house at 3:30, crushing me in a hug and reminding me of how much I love when she returns to Hannibal, and how much I love our wonderful ability to pick up our friendship exactly where we left off. It’s almost as though nothing has changed since we were 13-year-olds, even though I know so much has.

I’m loving every minute of having her here. Every joke about Twilight, every Harry Potter reference, every laugh, and every mile driven makes me smile. I can honestly say that I haven’t been this happy in a long time. I don’t remember the last time I went to Quincy just because, and I can be sure I’ve never snuck out of my house at 11:30 pm just to go buy lottery tickets.
Sometimes, I think about how my life would have been different if she would have stayed in Hannibal, instead of moving to Houston. And it would be different. And I’m almost confident in saying that we probably would not be friends right now. I’ve seen friends come into my life in the last five years, and most of them have exited as quickly as they came. But with me and Ruth, it seems as though the distance has brought us closer. We rely on telling each other everything because that’s the only way we have to pass information. That, and I think we’re close because no one expected us to make it very long after she moved.

But we have. We’ve lasted five whole years. Add that to the twelve years that we’ve known each other.

Earlier today we were talking about everything, and it’s hard to believe that the girl I used to talk about Drake & Josh with has grown into this adult, about to head off to college. It’s hard to believe that today we were talking about love, and marriage, and having children. We were talking about what we wanted to do with our lives, and that’s when it sunk in:

I am going to be friends with this girl for the rest of my life.

Seriously, though. If I can be friends with someone for twelve out of eighteen years of my life, what’s going to stop me from making her a lifelong friend? . I want to go to her wedding and I want to be that cool aunt to her children.

I’m so happy right now, you guys. I can’t stop smiling and laughing. This is the happiest I’ve been in a long, long time. Be happy for me.