Week 30: Childhood Craft for Adult Accomplishment

You guys! I need to take a moment to brag about my very witty, beautiful, brave, kind, and super smart best friend who has been working towards her DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice)! 

And now the end is in sight, literally, with the paper chain I made her to count down to it!

Brenda and I have known each other nearly our whole lives, meeting on the tennis courts the summer before attending the same middle school. 

We spent years hitting the mall to pick out books, building forts in the woods, watching music videos on MTV, talking on the phone about boys, and playing sports. (Typing that out made me realize we have changed little to none since the 80s.) 

Unfortunately, since we attended different high schools, we ended up drifting apart. One of the things I'm most grateful to social media for is our reconnection when Facebook hit the scene. It was like no time had passed during our first meetup, despite the decades. 

Since then, we've been by each other's side through some pretty big life stuff, listening and distracting and supporting during the difficult things and hyping each other up and celebrating the wins. And her DNP is definitely a win!

I spent an afternoon last week cutting out strips of construction paper, dating each piece (because life is hectic and I didn't want her to worry about missing a day), and then taping them all together to make a paper chain with a ring to remove each day until her graduation in May. 

Brenda, you should be so proud of yourself!! I can't wait to introduce you to everyone as Dr Best Friend henceforth!