Kate

Kate Maree Bauer. She's my best friend. Forever and always. We've been together since we were in diapers. She means so much to me and I hope in this post I can tell you how truly amazing she is.

Let's start in our early years. We went to the same babysitter and, from what I've been told, we were inseparable, except when she would bite me because I took her blanky. (True story) We went to the same preschool and all I remember from kindergarten is being so excited that she was going to the same school as I was. Now, my mom did a very mean thing to me while I was in elementary school. She told the principal not to put us together because "I needed to find more friends." Whatever. With a friend like her, you don't need anyone else. But, as time went on we grew apart, found new friends, and hated each other at some point in time. Especially in second grade when we had accidentally been placed in the same class.

When fifth grade finally came around, we were best friends again. Ever since we have always been friends. We may have grown apart at times, but we never fought. I would go to her house and she would "get mad" at me and her mom would offer to take me home at 3 am. But I would never leave. I was always there for her, just like she was there for me. We began being known around the school as twins. We looked nothing alike, but acted like the same person, sometimes. She was always louder and, well, meaner than I was. She was the kind of person who could say you were ugly to your face and not feel mean about it, and then I was there telling her to stop being mean and she would apologize.

Time went on, life went on, and before you know it we're going to Washington DC for a school trip in eighth grade. We were in the same group, of course. That summer was the first time we went on our shopping trips. We would go to an outlet mall for a weekend and spend all the money we could afford. I don't think we started getting as close as we are now until the end of last year as sophomores. This was one of the years, though, when she started talking more to one of our other friends, Taylor, and I would talk to my other friend, Lizzy, more. She was still my friend, but we weren't that close. Towards the end of the year we had grown closer because we went on a choir trip to Disney World and Taylor and Lizzy didn't go. I think that was the one thing that made us as close as we are today.

By the time school got out, we already had plans for the summer. We saw each other at least once a week. We created our Monday Pow-Wows and I stayed at her house all the time. Her brother became mine and my brother became hers. I went to her lake for a weekend and had the time of my life. I also went to Cedar Point with her and her family and my mom. It was always good that our moms were friends, too. If something bad happened to one of us, they would call the other and talk for hours. That was another thing that brought us closer. When I got cut from the volleyball team, I asked my mom if I could stay at Kate's house and she only said yes because she knew I needed someone to lean on. She knew Kate was the one and only person in my life I could tell everything to and not hold back. She's the one and only person in my life that will tell me who I should and shouldn't talk to. She is the one and only person I want in my life until I die.

And as I sit here crying because I finally realize how much she means to me, I just don't think the rest of the world sees her the same way I do. I told my parents I wanted to go to college with her and they basically called me stupid and petty. I don't care what they say. We have been together for 16 years. Nothing can get in the way of that. We share a bond that is hard to find. There is no way I can just throw that away because we want to go to two different schools. And even if we do go to different schools, I would have to see her every weekend or I would literally cry myself to sleep at night. There would be no possible way of moving on without her.

Now before you call me obsessed, crazy, or a lesbian, you need to realize that that's just the way we are. We touch each other's butts and talk about dirty things without any awkwardness. She's my best friend, my sister, my twin. There is nothing more I can say.