I Will Always Have The Memories

 1,117. This is the amount of miles from Iowa to Arizona. That is the distance between my best friend and I. April of 2005. That is the last time I saw him. I will always remember that year. Not because i was about to be an 8th grader. Not because school was almost out, but because that is the year my best friend moved away.
   I remember it was after one of our junior high track meets that he told me he was moving. It was the worst day ever. That was the worst feeling my little 12 year old heart had felt. I couldn't believe my best friend was leaving me. Even though I was only 12, it still hurt me inside that he was leaving and i would never see him again.The worst part about the whole thing is that i never had a chance to say goodbye or give him a hug. When i look back one thing i regret is not saying bye to him. I live in little Van Meter, Iowa and now he lives somewhere in Arizona. I haven't seen him in 5 years but we talk almost every single day. He always talked about coming back when he got his license he would road trip some summer up here to see us. Three years have past since he talked about coming up and we are seniors now and it never happened.
    Now that we are seniors we will be going our different ways soon, and since he lives so far away we will be even more out of touch. I am going to college up north close to Minnesota and he is going to Northern Arizona for college. It kills me to think that we will never see each other ever again. I miss him so much and i think about him every single day. He always tells me we will see each other some day when we are older, so i am being optimistic and thinking we will too.
   Most people reading this might think that i liked him or was "in love" with him. Since i talk to him everyday they think i have a crush on him. I admit that we dated. Junior high relationships weren't so serious back then. Haha. What you don't understand is that it is nothing like that now. We have both grown up and become mature and understand that we dated in 7th grade. He has a girlfriend and i have a boyfriend and we are both really happy. Well i'm not, but thats another story. Even though we have our own lives and are in two different states it still means so much that we keep in touch and we both know we will see each other again. Life is too short to be anything but happy, so we just have to live our lives with worrying and sadness and eventually things will fall in place.

Don't Cry Because It's Over, Smile Because It Happened.

I promised myself i wouldn't cry when it came down to our last volleyball game. It doesn't seem real that i wont ever get to play on our court ever again. Like after school i still feel like have to get ready for practice, but then i remember we had our last practice. As I put away my volleyball shoes and my knee pads in my closet, it hit me that it's all over all the games, practices, wins, losses and bonding, it's all over. This was the last time i will ever play on a team with these girls. I couldn't of asked for better girls to play with and end our season the way we did. Even though we didn't go as far as we planned, we still went farther then a lot of the teams that had beaten us before. Going to the third round of regional finals was the best feeling ever. We had the confidence, mind set, determination and heart to keep going forward. Even though at some point it had to end and unfortunately for us it was quicker than we realized.Out of my four years of volleyball my senior year was definitely my favorite and most memorable. When you love something and you know the end of it is coming, you want to keep holding on just a little longer, just so it can hurt a little more. I will always reminisce about my volleyball seasons with family and friends just so i can remember that was the best time i ever had.  When all is said and done, it's not the kills and digs that won or lost our games that I'll remember, but the family that was created along the way. Senior year is where you really decide where you are going and who you want to be. Anywhere i go the 6 senior girls will always have a piece of my heart. They mean more to me than they, themselves even realize. They are the ones that filled this season with the memories that i will always remember. This time next year we will all be doing different things, making new friends and joining new teams in college but when I look back and think of the girls, I will smile and say that even though they were my teammates for only a season, they will be my best friends for forever.