Sarah understands me equally as well as my family does and I can't imagine my life without her in it. She is beautiful, stylish and unequivocally agrees that I am the funniest person she knows =)
This is part of the speech I gave at her wedding....
I've known Sarah since we were middle school students together in Vermont and somewhere over the years, the lines of friendship and family between the Andersen's (that's my family) and Gates'(that's hers) have gotten so blurred that they seem to no longer exist.
As high school students Sarah parked in the garage at my house if she was the first one "home", my parents assigned her a dish night during the week, Jerry built our latin day school projects (of course we won the blue ribbon!) and Leslie scolded us the same when we missed curfew (even though it was rarely our fault). We've even experienced a miracle together (or so I thought).
When I try, I can think of friends and fun times in my life from before I met Sarah, but to quote something she said once about our friendship, "it just is, always has been and I can't imagine a day that it isn't".
I think the truest testament of our friendship has been to look back and see how we've evolved. We've been young and carefree 16 year olds with cars (although I'll admit she was bit cooler in her Eagle Talon with her Bag Cell Phone than I was with my Subaru Loyale and CB Radio), we've supported each other through heartaches and tragedy, we've shared in each other's successes, we've been roommates, we've argued and made up a million times and now we've stood beside one another as we each became a wife to the man of our dreams.....
When I try, I can think of friends and fun times in my life from before I met Sarah, but to quote something she said once about our friendship, "it just is, always has been and I can't imagine a day that it isn't".
I think the truest testament of our friendship has been to look back and see how we've evolved. We've been young and carefree 16 year olds with cars (although I'll admit she was bit cooler in her Eagle Talon with her Bag Cell Phone than I was with my Subaru Loyale and CB Radio), we've supported each other through heartaches and tragedy, we've shared in each other's successes, we've been roommates, we've argued and made up a million times and now we've stood beside one another as we each became a wife to the man of our dreams.....
(The Speech went on from there, but that was the part mostly about Sarah...)
When Sarah moved to NC and I was still living in VT, we had the most outrageous phone bills. We used to "watch TV together".... just be on the phone, watching the same TV show... we had a plan to meet and eventually marry Justin Timberlake (me) and JC Chasez (her)... it didn't quite work out - hahahaha... it wasn't long before Mike and I were moving here too.... and now I couldn't imagine my day to day life without her and Adam...
She has seen me in both some of the very best and very worst times in my life and I love her so much.... neither of which are situations I would want to have any other friend with me above her.
I would not be me without her as my best friend - she defines the word friendship, loyalty and trust to me.
There is nothing I can't do or say with her.
There is nothing I can't do or say with her.
So enjoy some photos of the lovely birthday girl...
A cold VT day:
Punky Brewster:
In High School:
This set of photos got a great laugh during the slideshow I made for her wedding:
After her speech at my wedding - it is one of my favorite photos of us b/c I think better than any other, it shows the connection between us:
jumping on Jekyll Island in March 2007:
She was so gorgeous on her wedding day:
I can't wait to spend our next thirty plus years growing our amazing friendship. I know it is going to be a heck of a ride =)
Thank you for the memories, the laughter, the shoulder to cry on, the honest opinions and feedback, and for truly loving me unconditionally.
Happy Birthday =)
1 comment:
Thank you for making me tear up :)
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