Okay. The relationship between Sheena and I is well-documented. Our friendship has spanned the expanse of the Internet, and lives within the little spaces of our heart too.
Our friendship is a funny thing though. We can fight (oh my aching sack. We CAN fight). We can dream together. We can talk for DAAAYS (Nonhle has no idea). In fact, with Sheena, our conversation NEVER ends, no matter if we only talk for 2 minutes in a month.
(Thank you to Angel Conradie for the picture).
Our friendship is that. It is a neverending conversation. I can tell you, within 5 seconds, how she is, where she is, what she’s doing and whether or not she hates anyone that day. Sheena can tell you, within 3 seconds, exactly which mindfunk I’m dealing with on any given day.
This wasn’t a won friendship. There was never any hard work attached to it. There’s never been any situation we’ve found ourselves in (or put each other into – and I’m guilty of a few of those…) that was insurmountable. She’s the other mother to my child too – and that in itself, is all I’ll tell you about that. She knows, intricately, what that means to me, and my kid.
We’ve tried, often, to trace our respective genealogies…because we know each other TOO well, and are primarily convinced that we’re actually related. We may as well be. For the record though, we can find no such physical evidence of such.
We live a billion miles apart (sometimes it feels like it)…yet every day, without fail, we are in tune with each other.
I’ve been very proud of her. For a lot of reasons I will never tell you. They’re “our stuff”. When she left Durban, in search of the “big thing” that would make her happy, give her purpose, make some dreams come true…I worried my head off. Like a parent whose child is leaving home. Sometimes, I still do that.
But she has, every single time, knocked my worries out of the park. In her life, and my own, she’s believed when I could not. She’s juggled when I’ve been all awkward elbows and antsy teeth.
(Thank you, Angel Conradie for this picture)
When she met Jon. Poor guy. Poor, poor guy had to deal with my crazy quasi-parental insanity when he met me. Poor guy. He passed every test. Just so you know.
When she got the dream job. I whooped and danced at my desk.
And now. Now she and I talk and talk about our life choices, our decisions, our thoughts. And I am proud.
She made a choice recently, and tomorrow it becomes a reality. For Sheena and I, being able to make decisive choices, didn’t come naturally to us. We often floundered around them, like kids who are just learning to swim.
But, we’ve grown. She’s grown. We learnt how to make choices and kept our splash-flapping to each other. Somewhere along the way, Sheens grew.
She’s writing her book. She found love (and – thank heck – worthy love found her too). Tomorrow, she starts on a new dream. Tomorrow, she follows through with her choice, that she made, with purpose.
Sheena Gates. You always were destined to be a legend in my life, since our very first Facebook message.
Tomorrow, you’ll become a legend in a new office. I love you to pieces, Gatesface. Proud of you. X