Best Friends

It's been a couple of months since I posted anything on here. Yikesville. I'd say sorry, but you probably don't acutally care that much, which is cool with me.

So I've been thinking a lot about friendship lately, mostly because I went from having very few close friends to having the most amazing close friends in the world. At the beginning of Spring term (April), I was a little (a lot) bummed out because everybody seemed to have their special someones. And I'm not just talking about boyfriend/girlfriend special someones – I'm also talking about best friend someones. Everybody had somebody. But not so much for me.

The only best friend I've ever had was Analicia, when my family came back to America for a year when I was in 7th grade. She was Licia Carter and I was Mela Richardson, because we were married to Nick Carter and Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys. We had so much fun together, and my world came crashing down and broke into a million pieces when I had to move back to Africa in August of 1999.

I never had a best friend before Analicia, and I'd never had one since... until Holly came along. Holly and I like to take random roadtrips, because the road is where we became best friends. She's my dancing buddy, my future roommate, and she's the person I call at 2am when something outrageous happens that I can't deal with on my own.

I also have a #2 best friend, Sean Pimp Daddy. I don't remember exactly how we became "#2 best friends," all I remember is that we were in the bathroom at his house on my 21st birthday, and he was shaving his head when we decided to make that each others' title. I didn't even know him that well at the time, but that's what we call each other now. Literally. "Hiiiii, #2 Best Friend..." is how many a phone message will begin. I've never had an actual #2 best friend before, so I guess Sean is unique in that way.

And of course, there's Jenna. She always has the most amazing advice, and she always encourages me in my faith. Without Jenna and Holly holding me accountable and holding me up, I don't know where I would be. Two amazing women of God, and I love them.

Probably the most unexpected person for me to list here is Socorro. She and I were two of the eight summer interns working for Students International last summer. I honestly do not understand how she became one of my best friends. She spent the entire summer irritating me to no end – in all honesty, I would sometimes even sleep in my media office just to have some time away from her. And trust me, it was a two-way street because I annoyed the heck out of her sometimes, too.

Sock and I have less in common than anybody I've ever met in my life. But somehow, she's managed to challenge me in more ways than any other friend ever has, largely because she's frustrated me more than all those other friends combined. We're polar opposites, in the most radical ways possible. Nevertheless, she continues to help me grow and she constantly challenges me in my friendships and in my Christian walk. She's the person that I can't live with, but for some reason I can't live without.


I could write about friendship for hours, but that would get long and boring and I probably wouldn't find a way to make my point very clearly anyway. So I'll finish it up with a MySpace message that Analicia sent me the other day. It seriously almost made me cry, I'm not even kidding. Speaking of crying, I saw the movie Eight Below the other day, and I cried like a baby. My brother gasped, jumped up, and wrote on the kitchen calendar, "Melt cried during movie!"


But anyway, the message from Licia:

Gosh Mela I miss you. I'm feeling down and out and was like hey I wish Mela were here or I was there... lame too bad... I wonder where we'd be if you never left Fresno... who's yard would we be screaming and running through the spinklers in... what alcohol would you buy me???? lol... Yeah we could lay outside and get eaten by skeeters and talk till the sun came up...

Life has really gotten away from me... work work work... I feel that by the time I'm done with school and everything else I won't have time to have life... I think maybe if you were here we'd have the same job and same days off and we'd go out to the beach everyday off and go to school together like before... I miss those days... school together... not sleeping... I'm so old, or at least I feel old.

I wonder if I went over to Oregon how things would be... would we be able to just sit and talk like old times... I could tell you crazy my life has been all the bad and good things... all the pain and tears.... then you could tell me everything back... even though I haven't talked with you in a long time, I think I may just burst. Like a dam. All my thoughts and feelings will come out and won't stop for a while... hmmm... I really should get some sleep... well take care, Mrs. Richardson.......

-Mrs. Carter.

I love my friends. I'm so happy, you don't even know. And it's all because of my friends.