Hiking Through Life: Friend Dedication: Veronica

I recently told you guys that I would be dedicating some of my blogs to my amazing friends that I have. So I have decided that today is a good day to do that. Today's blog is dedicated to my amazing, loving, and caring friend Veronica.

Veronica and I met our freshman year of college during cheerleading tryouts. She was another one of those girls that I didn't like because again they bragged about their high school squads being so good and like I said, mine wasn't, haha! We were eventually paired together to be bases for a stunt group, with Lacey as our back spot and the friendship took off from there. Throughout our freshman year she really began to grow on me. I loved how she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and she would have your back no matter what. I loved hearing her stories about back home in Alaska and we loved teasing her about Alaska with saying things like it not being in the U.S. We even asked her at one point if you needed a green card or a passport to go up there (we were totally joking with her, but I secretly think she hated us when we did this.) By the end of that year, we were doing everything together.

Our sophomore year, it was pretty much the same. She lived down the hall from me in the on campus apartments, so again we did everything together. Trips to Applebees, Wal-Mart, the Snowdown Parade, weekend movies and dinners along with cheerleading practice. She even taught me how to sew because I was pretty clueless about it. One of the things that I remember the most about that year was all of the ridiculous food that we would cook. One night she made fried plantains with this dipping sauce and it was delicious. She also made us halibut one night. She was always cooking really yummy meals for us. Our relationship seemed to be growing more and more, but I don't think any of us were expecting what was going to happen our Junior Year. Everything changed when we came back our Junior Year. I'm not going to go too much into details, but someone that was very close with all of us somehow made us think that Veronica was a horrible person and we started to not hang out with her as much. I totally regret this now because in the end, the person who I thought was the nice one turned out to be the horrible friend. If I could go back, I would change everything.

Me and Veronica on one of
our many shopping trips

Senior year rolled around and again things changed drastically. Lacey and I started hanging out with Veronica again because the other friend was no longer there. We noticed such a huge difference in Veronica that it made us realize how great of a friend she really was. We started hanging out non stop again. Almost every night we were at one of our places doing dinner and movies or talking about wedding plans because Veronica was getting married later that year. Or we were swimming, or shopping, there was always something going on with us. Things were back to the way that they should have been all along, and I couldn't have been happier with the way that things were going. Towards the end of the year, some things happened with girls in her wedding party that caused Veronica to ask Lacey and I to come to Alaska to be in her wedding. After we figured out the finance part of it, we were in! I was so excited to go up there and see what she had been talking about for the last four years.

Graduation came along and after a long weekend of celebration with all of our families, Veronica, Lacey and I had to go our separate ways. It was definitely hard saying goodbye, but I was very proud of myself because I didn't cry. We all knew that we would be seeing each other again really soon so we tried to look forward to it. All summer I couldn't wait for her wedding.

Veronica and I after Graduation

In August, Lacey and I along with Lacey's family, made the trip to Alaska to see Veronica get married. Lacey left before I did so she had already been there a few days, but as soon as I got there, the three of us picked up right where we left off. I remember talking to my mom right after I got there and she could hear the conversation that was going on in the background which of course had tons of laughter in it, and I just remember her saying, "Wow, it is as if you guys never left each other." That stuck with me because it really was true. The rest of the time that we spent up there was amazing and we had such a great time at the wedding dancing the night away.

I am so thankful that I got to spend those last few days with her. She is such an amazing friend and no matter what, she can make you laugh and she will always be there for you and she continues to always be there for me. I can't wait until I get to see her again. I'm not sure when that will be; hopefully it will be soon though. I hope that everyone has a friend like Veronica because I don't know what my life would be like without her. Enjoy the pictures below of us throughout the year.