Starting a new friendship by zaniah

Starting a new friendship by zaniah - January 2022 Scholarship Essay

When I first met my friend Bonnie we were in our first class of seventh grade. It was my first year in a new school and I was really nervous. At my old school I was there for eight years so to come into a new environment where I knew no one was definitely a challenge for me. I didn't really want to talk to her because I was so shy at the time but my teacher made us share our name with everybody at the table and for five minutes we had to get to know each other. I just wanted to get it over with so I can go back to doing nothing. On our first interaction I didn't really like her because she was just so bubbly and loud and I was the opposite so I never intended on having another conversation with her.
A month or so later we were both signing up for the decathlon Club; she saw me from across the room and waved for me to come over so I did reluctantly. She was asking me why I wanted to join the club and after I explained it to her, she told me why she wanted to join the club and it turned out that we have more in common than I thought. She even introduced me to some of her friends. It was weird at first because our relationship caught me so off guard but after getting to know her better and her friends better I realized how much we had in common. I needed someone like her in my life more than I knew it at the time.
I remember when we went to our first decathlon competition. I was so nervous. This was my first time doing it but she was calming down and reassured me that I have nothing to worry about. Every time I got nervous or was feeling a bit uncomfortable she always made it a point to make me smile or do a little dance for me just so I can feel better. When we were on our way back to the school we sat down next to each other and talked all the way to the school. We talked about our family and how we were both mostly in the same situation. I think that really brought us closer together; having a major part of our lives in common.
I really loved math and I was pretty good at it. I mostly got A’s and B’s on a Roll so I never really had a problem with that but Bonnie wasn't the best at math. She found it really embarrassing because she was good at everything else but wasn't good at math. She didn't want to talk about it with anybody else, especially our teachers, so I offered to help tutor her if she needed it. I think that really shifted our relationship. It is something more and then girls just talk once in a while. Knowing that she could trust me and confide in me really made our relationship grow in the trust between us built more and more everyday.
Bonnie had this boyfriend that was really weird to me. He just acted a certain way that just really made my head turn. One day Bonnie was really grouchy which really caught me off guard because she was always such a happy and joyful person. That day I knew something was wrong so I reluctantly asked her if she was okay. I didn't really expect anything of it because she just seems like she wasn't in the talking mood but out of my shock she told me that she thinks that her boyfriend was cheating on her. I could really care less about anyone else's relationships but she was my friend and she was really upset so I tried to comfort her and give her advice. She was really thankful that I tried to cheer her up. Her opening up to me really made me more confident to open up to her. That year we really became best friends. We were around each other all the time and we talked all the time. I was her best friend and she was mine.
Time went by fast and before I knew it it was summer break. I don't really like texting or communicating over the phone so that's summer we barely talked. We would text each other every once in a while but it wasn’t like we did at school. I guess that summer she made some more friends and I just kind of stayed to myself. When summer break was over and we went back to school we didn't have as many classes as we did the year before so when we saw each other in the hall sometimes we would wave or nod to each other. But we never had a real conversation. That eighth grade she drifted and found some new friends while I kind of stayed to myself that entire year. Since then we haven't really talked to each other. We don't even see each other anymore because I switched schools. I still think that our friendship was real and I cared about her a lot but I guess people grow and move on at least for us anyway.