My group of best friends

I am so thankful this happened when I was in middle school: my speech therapy teacher created a social skills program for students with disabilities to help these students develop social skills; I was included in this program. I attended this as a class once a week instead of going to gym class. By the end of my middle school years, I had my own group of friends! They became my best friends, and they still are my best friends today.

My best friends are: Shelby, Hilary, Alyssa, Justina, Jenna, and Sam. I wanted to feature them in this blog story to show how much they mean to me in my life. All of them have accepted me for who I am since day one. I remember when my friendships were formed with them, which were throughout middle school. In 6th grade, Shelby and I had a lot of classes together. When I met her, she was nice and kind! We chatted a lot in our classes, which led to our friendship. She became my first friend in middle school, and has been my friend since.

In 7th grade, I met Hilary, Alyssa, and Justina. I met Hilary through a class together in which we were the only two girls in. True story! Hilary was so sweet and friendly when I met her. We had good times together in our class. Since then, we always had fun and good times together! Through Hilary, I met Alyssa, and this occurred in our lunch period. Alyssa was nice and kinda shy when I first met her. As the year went, I learned Alyssa and I have so much in common. For example, we use to watch the same TV show called, “WipeOut”, and we always talked about it in lunch. Ever since, we still have so much in common in our friendship! Then, I met Justina through a classmate from elementary school. There was stuff that happened between her and my classmate, but despite that, Justina was so nice and friendly when I met her. She still is nice and friendly! Eventually, she joined Hilary, Alyssa, and I at our lunch table in lunch. In 8th grade, we even had classes together and helped each other a lot in our classes. In 7th grade, I decided to have my birthday party with Hilary, Alyssa, and Justina, and it was a lot of fun! This was the first hangout I planned at my house, true story.

In 8th grade, I met Jenna and Sam. I met Jenna when she was feeling down about the situation with her friends at her other lunch table, and I saw she noticed Hilary at our lunch table one day. She asked if she can join us, and I let her join our lunch table. I knew that Hilary was friends with Jenna already, so I thought it was fine. Jenna was so nice and awesome when I met her, and she still is so nice and awesome! It still will always be funny to me that she is from Brooklyn because I was born in Brooklyn, and most of my cousins live there. Furthermore, Sam was the last one I became friends with. She was so friendly and kind when I met her; I met her in my math class, and I learned she has been best friends with Alyssa and Hilary since elementary school. Sam and Justina got me through joining their Language Arts class in the middle of 8th grade. It was not an easy transition, but they got me through that time. Eventually, all of us became best friends!

Since middle school, I have gotten together with everyone for hangouts, parties, events, and etc. Despite that all of us attended different high schools, half of us attended Marlboro High School and the other half attended Colts Neck High School, it did not get in the way of our friendship. The best was when all of us attended college together at Brookdale. That was the best because we were all reunited in the same school again. We created so many memories being in college together! Through everything, they always have been there for me in bad and good times. Now that we are currently planning for our futures, such as transferring to four year colleges or full time working, we are still there for each other no matter what.

In all, I learned through my best friends that it is not just being present, it is also about being loyal, honest, accepting, and above all, to love and be loved. I am so thankful and love all of them as my best friends! Please check out the video I created, to witness more about how much my best friends mean to me in my life.