Valentine to a friend...

Recently we had the chance to have a friend and her family over for dinner. It was nothing unusual really…just a buffet style make your own deconstructed burrito bowl. Proceeded by a crazy amount of bean dip (it was Super Bowl weekend after all!).

What made it special in hind sight was the relationship. I met Sue my first year at Western Washington University in what is now my hometown. She was one of a group of girls that had been in the dorm  the year before…the year that I had taken off after graduating High School and worked at McDonalds full time for a long, grueling year of "figuring things out."

Those girls welcomed me in like I was the missing part of the group. They were ready to play, study and cause trouble and I was a part of it instantly. To be taken in like that eased the transition to college living like nothing else could. And what about a friend that is instantly a friend. That's Sue for me.

And what made this dinner special and crazy, and weird is that my now 18 year old daughter was sitting at the table being coached by that same friend that I had danced with, laughed with, drank with, cried with, grown with and learned life with. She was coaching our baby how to answer the question we all get to answer when we graduate from High School….what are you going to do now?

She doesn't know that answer yet.  We don't expect her to know that answer yet. I only feel grateful to be able to coach her with that friend by my side. As we both figure out this part of our lives together. Which will hopefully continue to have dancing, laughing, drinking, crying and growing.

And I can only hope there is a friend like Sue waiting for Kate when she heads down her path.