Dear Natalie,
By: Emily Orsini
Tags: Series, Life Changing Events, Friendship

Dear Natalie,

Everyone in their life has someone they care about, whether it’s your mom, dad, a sibling, or even a grandparent. I care about so many people in my life that it’s hard to keep track, but one person that I know has stuck by me in so many different ways, shapes, and forms, is my best friend Natalie. It seems cliche to say that my best friend is not only an inspiration to me, but also someone who I admire in every aspect that makes up who they are, but it’s true. The basic stereotype that your best friend really is one of the most influential people in your life is completely applicable to me, and I embrace every single second of it.

It started back in first grade, where my dad, for a short period of time, had worked with Natalie’s dad. I don’t remember much from then, but have been told on multiple occasions that I instantly clicked with Natalie and her twin sister. Natalie and I were friends all throughout grade school, middle school, and now, during our sophomore year of high school. Of course, throughout the years we’ve drifted apart and became close again in a pattern-less cycle, but recently we’ve became so extraordinarily close that I don’t even need to think about how I act or what I say around her, she’ll always be there. She has been the one person in all sixteen years in my life where I feel as if I can speak freely around her and do whatever I feel like doing, without the fear of being judged or thought as being, “weird.”

Natalie is one of the strongest people I know, where she is fighting a battle everyday: anxiety. Sure, everyone gets a little anxious time to time, but Natalie has the weight of anxiety following everywhere she goes. She hasn’t had an anxiety attack in, wow, I completely forget the last time. She is on the road to becoming stronger everyday, and is learning to not only fight for herself, but show herself how absolutely awesome she is. Everyday I try to learn more about her specific diagnosis, so if the time comes where she is having an anxiety attack, I can help her in the way she needs. Natalie has been there for me in so many ways that have changed, helped, and saved my life, so the least I can do I listen to her never-ending rants about The Vampire Diaries, Dylan O’Brien, Robert Pattinson, and learn a little bit extra about something that affects her everyday life.

Natalie is D1 bound for field hockey, Ivy League bound for academics, and Nobel Prize bound for her kindness, compassion, and inspiring attributes that make her, her. She listens to me whenever I’m sad, she jokes around with me when we’re complaining about how boring English can be (sorry Ms. Fallows if you’re somehow seeing this), and she listens to Billy Joel with me when my family is finally sick of him after I blast his albums Glass Houses and The Stranger on repeat. Natalie is not only my best friend, but she’s like my sister. Literally, she’s like my sister. She can come over when my parents aren’t home, and her dad even calls me his fifth child, what more proof do you need? Blood doesn’t define family, a simple DNA test can easily be rigged to somehow prove I am in some way related to Natalie, but I have the rest of my life to prove that. I’m kidding, of course, unless it’s the government after receiving our passports with the same last name on them.

Thanks to my dad, I was able to meet my best friend at an extremely young age, a best friend I will carry with me throughout the remaining years I have on this Earth. Thank you Natalie, for genuinely caring about me when I felt as if no one else did, for being my rock, for making it easy to stand out and be different, because you’re just like me. Thank you for answering my random FaceTime calls that have absolutely no purpose, for listening to my music even though it’s not up to par with the taste that the rest of our friends have. I’m so incredibly grateful for you and everything you’ve ever done for me. Here’s to being my future Maid of Honor, Aunt Natalie, Dylan O’Brien’s wife, watching ridiculously sad movies, baking brownies, cookies, cupcakes, pie filling, and three layered cakes. I appreciate you and your strange obsession with Glee Cast versions of songs, Ross Lynch, and finding ways to use the mannerisms we both somehow had picked up from each other. Thank you for always being n my corner, and for confiding in me when you’re sad. I will never not be grateful for our friendship, and can’t wait for the years ahead.

See you later N Factor,

Emily