Flashback Friday!

My friend Dawn and I flew from PA to UT twice to attend EFY together at BYU. What grand adventures those summer trips were! This is a photo of us the first year we attended Especially For Youth together; we were just sixteen years old. This is my choice of flashback photo because today Dawn is 34! How did she get so old? Hee hee.

Dawn and I have been friends since we were like 5 years old. We were in the same classes for much of elementary school so we share many memories of those early years. We became more or less inseparable around seventh grade and were each other's constant companions until I went off to BYU and she to Hood College. Of course, we've always kept in touch and even now love to get together with our little ones and spouses for some fun visits.

Together, Dawn and I participated in all kinds of extra-curricular activities in high school--from field hockey to vocal ensemble to student council to musical productions. We loved taking classes together--anything from chemistry to yearbook to P.E. --we were there together making it fun! We were a team. Our senior year we were on the Homecoming Court together and I heard a rumor that we had each received the exact same number of votes. I still believe that rumor to be true. We were "Dawn and Mendy." I don't think people thought of one of us without the other (except boys--they only thought of her).

We would make others (and each other) laugh with our characterized sketches of various teachers and our own set of overused words, like "hideous" and "heinous."

Dawn was good for me because she'd make me study (something I rarely would have done if left to my own devices). Of course, to study for big tests we would convince our parents that we had to have sleepovers and we were both lucky enough to have parents who allowed such things--even on school nights. If I had Seminary in the morning, Dawn would come along if she'd slept at my house. If there was not Seminary, I'd sleep at hers. We were for fortunate to have each other all through adolescence and we knew that.

Now, I know I am still lucky to have such a friend in my life. After enjoying our teens together we went in different directions and found our own lives but always keep in touch. For a couple of years, we both lived in the same town in MD. At our 10 year reunion, classmates would ask where I lived and then where she lived and when we said we lived just miles apart, they'd say, "Of course!"

Even though Dawn still lives under an hour away from me, I don't get to see her as much as I'd like. Life is like that sometimes, you know, just busy busy busy. Although I don't see her everyday, I think of her often and smile remembering all of our teen-aged girl silliness. I know she'll be my friend forever.