My worlds don't often collide.

In college, I was always keenly aware of the separation of my Santa Fe and Tacoma lives. Except for the occasional visit from my parents or Ryan, nobody else from the two places ever mixed. Well, once an ex-boyfriend visited me in Tacoma for about an hour freshman year, but that was it. When I moved to Richmond that simply added another world that rarely mixed, though it did so more than the other two.

The real collision of my worlds lies with Allison. Allison and I have been friends since our freshman year of college. I'll admit that sometimes when I think back on friends at school I mostly think of Katie and Amy, or the friends I would watch movies with on the weekend and go to shows with in Seattle. I didn't do those things with Allison. But she and I were in a Bible study all through college, so in some ways we knew each other even better. And when I really stop and think about it, she was truly a big part of my college years. We froze together while planting cherry trees with migrant workers during a spring break, she helped fill my room with tiny cups of water stapled together on my birthday, one semester we met for breakfast every Tuesday at the SUB, I held her hand while she got her nose pierced, and we went to a Sunday service together at Westminster Abbey in London.

Allison graduated a year early and moved to North Carolina for PT school at Duke. We were all sad to see her move so far away, and honestly, I doubted I'd really see much of her again, because sometimes that's how life goes. Then I moved to Richmond. And after that? I moved to North Carolina, too. And then she moved to Richmond! As if these coincidences weren't enough, back in 1999 we were both at the same music camp in Michigan for eight weeks. We didn't know each other at all, but now we can remember together blue socks, the date gate, and the tuba hut. And you want to know another coincidence? The one person from college who actually has seen me in Santa Fe is this guy Cody, who is a close family friend of Allison's. How crazy is all that?!


Last weekend another friend who was in our college Bible study came to visit for the day, so three of us were back together again! That's Josefina on the left and Allison in the middle.

So to boil all of this down, what I'm trying to say is I love Allison and I'm incredibly grateful that she transcended my Tacoma world and is still in my life. I love hanging out with her, and sometimes when I'm sitting next to her in church I think back to sitting with her at Lighthouse in college and I am overwhelmed with how amazing it is that we're still together.

Tomorrow Allison leaves Richmond for Belize, where she will work her PT magic with children for six months. I will miss her a lot, but I think this is an amazing opportunity for her so I'm also excited to see her go. I can't wait to hear about her adventures, as well as her inevitable (but hopefully few) misadventures. And who knows, maybe the next time I see her will be in Belize in January?!!!