Theology Girl Squad

Last week a package arrived in the mail to all of us from a far-away friend, recommending we open it together. So tonight we gathered for dinner and opened this anticipated gift. T-shirts! Personalized t-shirts! This is us (well, it was us last year) - the Theology Girl Squad. We'd talked about doing this, and now here it is! So exciting!

Three of us are in a class together now, and we're planning on all wearing our shirts one day next week. I wonder if people will notice that we match... (We all sit together, and it's one of those classes where everyone sits in a circle/square.) Theme days are fun.

One girl couldn't make it tonight because her baby was sick and cranky, so we unexpectedly popped by her house to drop hers off. It was good to see her... we don't see her enough since she's not at school this year. (It's really nice when friends are convenient. That's one thing I like about school.) I wasn't sure if it would actually be a good thing to stop in or if we would just be a bother, but I think she liked it that we came. She invited us to drop by anytime. I hope we do. We miss her.

Group memories... the one that comes to my mind first is going for coffee - meeting at her house and then walking down to Second Cup. The sunshine. The announcements that were shared that day. Then I remember other coffee times. Huddled around a table in the dimness of Starbucks. And lunch times - going to Wendy's after chapel so she could share her crisis of frustrations. The evening after the accusation, when we went to her apartment to debrief, and I kinda cried. They ate tuna and pickle sandwiches and I thought that was gross, so they fed me soup. Vitamin soup. And more one-on-one memories... How we did the SpDir project together, and how that made our friendship deep and honest and full of listening, and how I'm not afraid to confess to you. How even before we were close you once told me that I was important in your life (not just a luxury), and how you listened to me preview my chapel talk and you bought me a london fog, and how you became the person I called when things were too hard. How you have been such a constant friend to me over these past few years and how I appreciate that so much. How you were the newbie, but now you've become such a central friend to me that people think we've been close friends forever.

I love you, Friends.

Thank you for the t-shirt and the Starbucks and the love.