My New Best Friend

I want to apologize to my childhood best friend. I hope you are not offended by the fact that you have been replaced.

My new best friend and I have only known each other less than three years. Yet, in that short time we’ve become very close.

My best friend and I like to gab about boys. Okay, just one in particular.  We talk about how handsome and nice he is, and she tells me how she loves it when he tickles her.

We like to have all our meals together. We share a love of pasta and bread. And we both appreciate fine chocolates (the expensive kind).

My best friend loves sports, and she has me rediscovering them as well.  Just this morning, we went to the local high school field and watched a football game on a perfect fall morning.

I help her get dressed often, and sometimes she also gives me advice on what to wear (or not wear). Her favorite color is blue, which also happens to be my favorite.

We both love to read, although her taste in books has not yet matured.

We love to travel.  Sometimes we do it without ever leaving the house, by transporting ourselves to Chicago or London via the “Living Room Sofa-Airbus”

We like to talk about our plans for the future.  She has some big goals. “When I’m big I’m going to have soda and bubble gum, and I’m going to drive a car,” she tells me.

There are also some ways in which we are different.

She loves to exercise, and I don’t.

I’m big and tall, while she’s short and small.

She has curly hair, and well, I can’t say the same for me.

She loves all kinds of creatures and animals; her curiosity and kindness astounds me all the time. On the flip side, I fear anything that moves.

There’s one more detail you should know about us: my new best friend and I share the same genes. Not jeans (well, not yet anyway).

I know one day, my best friend will find other friends that are cooler, hipper, and younger than me. But for now I plan to take advantage of the fact that we spend every waking moment together (and some nights as well when she comes to sleepover in my room).

For now I am ever grateful to be her best friend. I’ll take it.

Sameera Iqbal

Mother of two rambunctious girls under three. Went from producing network television to wishing there were two minutes in a day to sit down and watch it.