English Composition: Important Person

There’s No Place Like Home

I was heart broken when my best friend, Mary Jane, moved away. She had been my first really good friend since I’d moved here almost six years ago. We only knew each other for a short time before her and her dad moved across town and we lost contact completely. While it was only a couple of months we had spent with each other it felt like a lifetime. Mary was exactly what I had prayed for every night before going to bed. The only thing that she did was accepting me for who I was, unlike many others, and that is why I loved her so much. I hated God for taking her away from me without her I felt like I was missing half of myself; I felt like I was nothing but an empty shell.

That is the way I continued to feel until someone else moved into the neighborhood almost exactly one year since Mary Jane had. The first time I laid my eyes on Melissa I resented her. I felt she was trespassing on my grounds. I thought she was from Central’s colorguard and had the most arrogant person I’d ever encountered. Of course all of that was observed from just watching her talk to Mr. Mason, the band director, out of earshot and watching her do a short routine. I couldn’t have been anymore wrong about her.

Once I found out that she lived right across the street from me I volunteered to teach her the routine that the team had already learned. I have no idea why I wanted to help her since I had decided to hate her so much but if I hadn’t everything in my life would have stayed the same and I hated my life. Melissa was very much in the same boat. She hated the life that was soon to be hers in Grand Junction because she had a better one in Liberal, Kansas (home to not only her but Dorothy too).

After that first afternoon spent with Melissa after school I went home. During my nightly conversation with God I asked if Melissa was his answer to Mary Jane leaving me all alone in this cruel, cold world. When I analyzed the situation it became clear that Melissa was here to replace my Mary. God had finally answered my prayers! I hardly knew how to react. I’ve been but an empty shell for so long that I didn’t know if I could accept this sudden change of events. It was time to have Thanksgiving.

Later after spending every afternoon with Melissa to teach her the routine I decided I could make this work. She was sent to save my life, I might as well let her. If you talk to her about it she’ll claim it was really the other way around, that I was here to save her. It is still beyond me how I was supposed to do that. Maybe that was God’s plan to put two people that needed saving together. Sometimes that’s what turns out working best.

Melissa and I went through so much together. It was amazing how many problems we shared. What was even more amazing was the fact that together we got over them. It was like the rule of two negatives become a positive in a real life situation. We both had troublesome households and we would frequently run away to each other’s house to avoid our own. Melissa and I also battled the tail end of an eating disorder together and we proved to be the good support we each needed to overcome it completely, even though we were week.

Spending time with Melissa made me a better person. She often complained that I was self-centered and conceited and because of that she didn’t want to be my friend. Because she said that I worked on changing my ways and made a big effort to listen to people more and sincerely be interested. Not only Melissa noticed this sudden change in me but so did my entire family. Once they called me insufferable but now, even with personality clashes, I am not the one they want to get rid of.

I am also more comfortable with myself. Through my friendship with Melissa I was able to learn how to live with myself. Because of that I am able to live now without her or anyone else to replace her and be happy. Out of everything that would be the best thing because there will be many times in my life where I’ll be alone but I can remember that doesn’t mean I have to be lonely.
Melissa was a turning point in my life. She is the change between the selfish child and the mature adult. Everyday I remember the life lessons she taught me even though she is completely unaware of them. Hopefully I have impacted her life in a similar way to the way she impacted mine. After all she was sent here to be saved too.
Soon our lives will be changing drastically again with me going off to college and her giving birth to a child. We’ll be living in two different worlds let alone two different states. Melissa decided to go home to her mother in Kansas once she found out she was pregnant because to her "there is no place like home." Even though we are two completely different people than when we first met and that much more different from each other. I hope that we can keep our differences aside and continue to be friends because we are good for each other. We made life worth living. That is the very purpose we were put together, to show each other the world wasn’t a cold, cruel place but one full of life.

It’s funny how people find their way into your life when you least expect it and how you never realized how much of an impact they made on your life until they’re gone. It’s not only the big things you notice but little things too. When I get dressed in the morning I think of Melissa. I think of her because I rearranged my closet by color after seeing hers that way. It looked so cool I had to do it too. I also have a pair shoes laced from top to bottom instead of from bottom to top so when I wear long pants you can still see my Rainbow Brite shoelaces, which was Melissa brilliant idea. When I drive over railroad tracks I say "screw", when I drive under an bridge I say "watch ur head", and when I see a Scnider truck I kiss my hand and touch the roof of my car. All of these rituals are something Melissa and I insisted were said at the appropriate times in our cars by all passengers. Among these there are countless ways Melissa has changed the way I think. I can’t even begin to list all of them.