Kleine Küsse

For April’s photo story, I’ve decided to orient my photos around my best friend from college, Isabella. This month more than ever, we have celebrated the intimacy of friendship in the most mundane ways we could (as a result of the pandemic continuing on): driving around in my dad’s car, sitting at the beach, eating take out at a park, and more. Intimacy is often associated with romantic relationships; at least when I think about intimacy, that’s where my mind leads me. However, some of my most personal and private relationships are those with very dear friends. It’s extremely rare and unique when you find someone that immediately clicks with your personality, who you are as a human being, your essence. The sense of familiarity I felt when I first hung out with Isabella freshman year was impalpable. It was almost as if we were introduced to each other at the perfect time, when we needed a solid anchor in our lives. The first semester of college is quite hectic; it’s a matter of making as many friends as possible and figuring out which people truly mean something to you, and weeding out the ones you don’t connect with. So, when I was introduced to Isabella, it immediately felt like we had an authentic and gentle and goofy friendship. 

Ever since we became instant best friends, our time together has always felt like an adventure. When the pandemic hit, Isabella and I moved back home without families, and it took a minute to adjust to the physical separation that quarantine had evoked on us all. Although the time apart in the spring and fall semester was tough, our present adventures make our friendship even stronger, solidifying those natural and intuitive feelings about how we got along during our first meeting. I wanted to pay tribute to that feeling and our friendship in one of my photo stories. I’m very fortunate to have such wonderful lifelong friends in my life, and I’m grateful for how my friends have made me the person I am today. So, with all of this in mind, make sure you call your friends and tell them how much you appreciate them.