Creative Soul Sisters
I’ve never been one to have my ideal future all planned out in my mind. The question “Where do you want to be in five years?” makes my mind go completely blank.
But the further I’m forced to travel forward in time, the more I know what I want small corners of my life to look like.
This is Nikki. She’s a creative (go see some of her beautiful creations here!) and a carer of people. If the weather could emulate her soul, she would be the first day you realize winter is breaking. The day you don’t have to wear a big fluffy coat. When the snow begins melting, revealing the green that was there all along. Where the crisp air hits your skin, but it feels like heaven compared to the grey yesterday.
Nikki and I were in the same small group from the early Sunday school days, to the last weekend before graduating. We laugh about it now, but we didn’t actually consistently talk to each other until March of our senior year.
Waiting to be friends until it was almost time for us to move out makes sense though, since we’re both pretty shy procrastinators.
As I try to visualize my future, I see myself with a family one day. And I see Nikki coming over for a visit and my kids running up to her yelling, “Aunt Nikki!!” and giving her big hugs because they’ll love all the stories she tells and how much she makes them laugh.
Once, Nikki and I were told that we are creative soul sisters and I think that’s the best possible way to word our friendship.
In high school we took art together and saw each other grow in our ideas and techniques. The last three summers we’ve made some video series about ourselves and other people. She’s my go-to person when I want to talk through my next art project.
Throughout these college years, we’ve had countless chats over FaceTime that probably average around three hours each. But the lost sleep has always been worth it, just to be listened to by a long time friend and to talk about the small meaningless things like how I felt after I raised my hand in class or what the gross school food is like.
These days our talks share the common theme of uncertainty about the future. We have lots of questions on what life will look like and lots of fears about it not going in a forward direction. And though neither of us have any answers, we still lend our ears to each other to empathize through this densely foggy path we’re on.
I’m forever grateful for this cozy, passionate soul. For showing me a music video two months before the end of high school, for all the late night drives screaming along to introspective lyrics, and for the unconditional friendship we’ve gradually grown into.
Creative soul sisters for life.~kj