When Friends become Family

            During a barbeque, my life changed before I even knew what life was. In a small group of four friends, discussion of going camping with together for the first time was the main topic. Had they known that it wouldn’t only be one, but a lifetime of campfires?

            “Hey, are you guys ready to go camping?” Victoria asks excitedly over my mom’s phone, like she always did when we were ready to leave. It was the norm going camping with one another for as long as we could remember. With our parents being friends before our birth, we felt a sort of closeness with one another, like two peas in a pot.

            “Yes! Are you guys by the store already?” I ask, as were on our way to our usual meeting spot at the corner store.

            “We’re almost there, see you guys right now,” Victoria says before she disconnects the call.

Routinely, once we get to the store, Victoria and I hop off and help our moms’ collect snacks for along the way. As we collect our items, Victoria and I snicker about what happened the last time we vacationed in Ruidoso for the Christmas holidays and our plans and wishes for this time around. Four hours after leaving the store, we finally arrive to the hundred acres of trees with a lake glistening blue in the center. As our parents set up and begin to make dinner, habitually, we leave to the playground for an hour or so. While playing, a girl around mine and Victoria’s age ask if she could join.

            “Okay. I’m Victoria, and this is my cousin Eternity. We’re playing moms, you can use this baby, since I have two,” Victoria says cheerfully as she passes the bald baby boy doll to the girl’s outstretched hand.

            Later that night, around the orange and yellow lit campfire, with the sound of the whispering hisses, the sizzling pops and the smell of burnt marshmallows with a faint smell of pine needles, I sit and think.  I go deep into thought about Victoria’s earlier comment of us being cousins. Looking at our families around the campfire, chatting and whispering, I realize how right and natural that statement was.

            Laying her now with Victoria, we giggle about the memories we’ve shared from our traditional camping trips and how they’ve affected it us.  When I ask about the time she called us cousins, she chuckles and says that’s how she’s always felt that way and still does, “we’re not just friends, we’re family.” This couldn’t be more accurate.

            We’ve been through a lot together, shared a lot of memories, and each year our bond just gets stronger. We’ve watched each other grow, we confide in each other, and we remain to be there for each other no matter what. We’ve been with each other all our life’s and plan to remain in them to the very end. Family for me is when you feel secure with one other, when you can be yourself with, without the fear of judgment, its loving someone unconditionally, and being there for one another no matter what the circumstances are. And that’s exactly what they are to me. They’re not just friends, they’re family.  Who would have thought that one time of camping together could have transformed to a tradition that brought two families together as one?