Carlie

Back at the beginning of fourth year, I had just met Carlie through Dave. She was a don and in Con-Ed so we had some familiar grounds to start off on right from the get-go. She had also taken a classics course in a previous year that I was taking at the time and we both agreed that the prof was heinous and invented a lot of the final marks; we arrived at this last conclusion from our inexplicably high marks despite failing a good portion of the class. At any rate, I had known Carlie for a very short time but I will always remember coming home from class one day and seeing that Carlie had written on my wall, suggesting that we have dinner at Leonard sometime. For some reason, that gesture of goodwill stuck with me and I remember it to this day.

At first glance, I think most people would be inclined to say that Carlie and I are very different people. The longer I know her, though, the more I'm convinced that Carlie and I share some fundamental beliefs about love, friendships, and the bonds we make with people around us. We also share some fundamental preferences for certain awesome television shows (Glee, HIMYM, Boy Meets World) but that's more of a bonus.

I first noticed this understanding when Carlie began commenting on the notes I wrote on facebook. At first I thought it was simply a product of my spectacular note-writing skills but as I wrote more and Carlie kept commenting, I began to realize that the ideas I was expressing through them were ideas that Carlie had also, at one point, considered. I wasn't really illuminating anything new or showing her anything she didn't already know. And while there's something to be said about showing people a new way of seeing or understanding somethings, it's also pretty cool to know that someone already gets it.

Ultimately, though, there is one particular trait about Carlie that stands out among everyone else in my life. Carlie understands that a good friendship needs to be fed and she will ALWAYS take the time, every so often, to ask you about your life and let you know that she's thinking about you. She will send postcards; she'll make mix-CDs. She will also always let you know, after you've seen her, how much she enjoyed seeing you. Carlie is the only person I know who does this and it is just... so awesome. You'll hang out with her, maybe with some friends; you'll say goodbye; head home, feeling pretty good about the day/evening; then you'll open up the facebook and see that she's posted on your wall, telling you how awesome it was to see you.

And that's it, you know? It's the extra mile; the cherry on top; the little thing that makes you realize just how lucky you are to know someone who makes the effort to reaffirm the value she places in your friendship. What more could you ask for?