My childhood best friend and I were separated and now we are attending the same university.

• My childhood best friend and I were inseparable, but due to our different hobbies, we gradually became estranged.
• By a strange twist of fate, we ended up attending the same college in Boston.
• We are now rekindling our friendship and making up for lost time.

I don’t remember, but I heard that the first time Rebecca approached me was during orientation at Cottonwood Kindergarten in Littleton, Colorado. She walked towards me and asked me to be her friend. I’m a kind and empathetic person, so she said no.

I still feel horrible about it. To my credit, I have concerns. And that unfortunate interaction didn’t actually stop us from being friends.

From that moment on, we became best childhood friends and now we are trying to rekindle that friendship in college.

We were inseparable growing up.

The first time my parents set us up on a playdate, we became inseparable. We managed to make each other laugh at the most random things until we started crying. We loved being in the spotlight and we danced ballet in “The Nutcracker.” Make sure you know all the pieces each year. We loved playing dramatic karaoke songs for hours for Rebecca’s mom. We ordered a McDonald’s Happy Meal and gave her some pickles to dip into her cheeseburger. We shared secrets and thoughts that we couldn’t tell anyone.

It may sound dramatic, but we were platonic soulmates. It took no effort for her to be around her and she never ran out of things to do and talk about. We love the most, from falling in love with fabric to dressing up in her recycled adult gown collection to hearing her mother sing “Dream a Little Dream of Me” as she falls asleep. I was able to find joy in small activities.

She is the sister I never had and I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

But as we got older, our relationship changed.

As I continued to take ballet lessons, I didn’t like ballet as much as she did. I’ve always loved singing and wanted to try musical theater as well, but she had ballet practice five days a week, so I didn’t have time for both. So, at the age of 13, she said goodbye to ballet and turned to musical theater. Rebecca continued dancing. It was not easy to keep in touch, since she did not go to the same school, could not drive herself and was always busy with separate rehearsals.

We had dinner here and there with my mom and tried to catch up, but things weren’t the same. We spent the end of middle school and the beginning of high school without each other, a pivotal period of growth, and our lives didn’t align.

We spoke very little until we stopped talking at all. I felt like I couldn’t connect like I used to.

we now have a second chance to develop our friendship

I graduated high school when the pandemic started in 2020, and Rebecca was still in middle school at the time. Although our interactions were still minimal, she gave me a very kind and thoughtful gift for her graduation. She put together a basket of things I loved and a thick envelope with messages like “Open it when you’re sad” and “Open it when you miss home.”

She always gave me thoughtful gifts, which meant so much and allowed me to get to know her even after years of no interaction. As she opened the envelope at Emerson College and looked at her notes and pictures of our little girls from when we were once happy, I felt depressed.

After Rebecca graduated from high school, she moved to California with her parents. But in a strange twist of fate, her university picked up its film program, so she transferred to Emerson last fall. She was looking forward to seeing her again, but was also nervous about how strange she felt. We just kept reminiscing and I was worried that our friendship wouldn’t grow like it did now.

Somehow, when I first saw her at the Boylston T who stopped by our campus, my anxiety faded and it felt like we were never apart. She smiled at me and I knew I was okay.

Although we are both busy with classes and work, we now see each other at least once a week. We use her AMC A-List pass to watch movies, hang out in her dorm room, work, or just chat.

Sometimes we catch glimpses of the girls we once were, as we giggle at a joke no one else understands or debrief after a Boston Ballet performance.

It’s not often you find someone who can pick up where you left off when you get back in touch, even if you’ve been away for a long time. Especially if you met at a different stage in life than where you are now. But for me, Rebecca is that kind of person.