The Closest of Friends

Let me begin by saying that I have the most important, charismatic, kind-hearted, fun-loving, carefree, vivacious friend in the entire world. I would bend over backwards for this specific girl, who in turn, would the same for me. Heather and I have been, for the most part, inseparable for going on ten years now. I don’t quite remember how we met, but I think that it was through 4-H. She attended Riverview Local Schools for her elementary education, Utica Schools for middle school and part of high school, and she finished high school with me at Licking Valley. We graduated together this past spring of 2007.

I don’t want to sound as if I am bragging, but if it weren’t for a caring friend life myself, Heather would not have graduated with our senior class. She contracted senioritis way too soon. As soon as our last year began she started missing days like crazy. She would make up any lame excuse to miss school. Every time I turned around she was going to the doctor’s office just to get an excused absence. I would call her every morning approximately eight to nine times to make sure that she was getting ready for school. Usually by the fifth or sixth phone call I would get a groggled, half-asleep, face-stuffed-in-the-pillow voice very softly and quietly saying “hello”. Finally by the eighth call she would get her ass up out of bed or inform me that she had another doctor’s appointment for God only knows what her reasoning was for that particular day.

Heather would fall behind in all of her classes very often. Of course, being the caring friend that I am, I managed to help her with all her make-up school work; also I would teach her the difficult, hard to understand materials that the class learned while she was out going to her unnecessary doctor’s appointments. (Which, might I add, were no more than an hour long and school day normally last seven hours, so where was she the other six? Who knows!) I think I recall her report card stating she missed 47 days her last year all together.

Heather is most definitely not mentally retarded, but she does learn slower than some others; she was in the learning disability classes, which made her homework and schoolwork extremely easy for me. I would go over to her house or she would come over to mine and I would, in a sense, tutor her; I would teach her the things that she missed and/or did not understand. If I wouldn’t have helped her with her assignments they would not have gotten finished, and she would have failed.

Even though it seems as if she didn’t, her mother really did and still does love and care about her. Education just isn’t very important in her mom’s eyes. My parents taught me completely different; if I didn’t have a very high fever I was forced to go to school. And I am thankful for my parents teaching me that education is very important to a person’s future.

When the principal announced Heather’s name on graduation day, you could tell that she was the most ecstatic, proudest person alive. Tears of joy poured from her family’s eyes, especially since she was the first one in her family to graduate high school. Her family broke the rule of holding applauses until the end, by hollering, yodelling, screaming, and clapping like mad, crazy people. Heather’s father passed away about four years ago and we both know that he would have been extremely happy and proud of her too and I think that that made her a little more determined to graduate.

Today Heather has a job, working on a farm, which she loves. She owns her own house and a brand new truck. Even without a high school diploma she could still be where she is at today but I’m trying to convince her to take it to the next level and go on to college. I almost have her convinced and she knows that I will be there to help her out with college as much as I am able to. I really hope that she proceeds to go through with furthering her knowledge. She and I both know that with a college degree she could be making possibly twice as much money as she is making today. She really likes animals and I think that she should go into something along the lines of veterinarian schooling. I really think that she might go because she’s always said she wants a job opportunity working with animals and she knows that she would be getting a much bigger pay check then what she is receiving now.