Chelsea and I meet when we were in third grade. We were in the same third grade class and I had just started going to her church. This resulted in us seeing each other at least six days a week. The two of us were as a like as we were different. Both of us were so stubborn but we each had a different way of demonstrating it. I was quietly stubborn, never one to throw a fit I would just make up my mind and refuse to change it. Chelsea would get loud. ( As she says “I would agrue for the sake of arguing.”)When she wanted something she would fight tooth and nail to get it. Our most memorable fight was over a paper chip. Both of us insisted that it was ours. (Don’t ask me how that problem got solved I don’t remember.) I remember our parents would say that we spent too much time together and that we needed a break, so over that summer that’s what we did. We didn’t see each other as much so we didn’t agree as much. Our relationship could be described as a love/hate relationship. Over the years. We reminded frenemies although we did continue to hang out with each other. We attended the same church programs, the same school and had lots of mutual friends.
Sophomore year we both discovered that we actually enjoyed spending time with each other. We had both grown up and become more mature and we had learned the value of discussion and compromise. It was no longer torture hanging out together. As it turned out Chelsea and I had a similar thought pattern, a similar way of looking at things, and we understood each other. One night we actually sat down and talked about our past relationship. We used that talk to get out all of our past hurt feeling and misunderstandings. After all that talking we agreed to move on and let it all go. Now we see each other at least six days a week and almost never argue.
Without realizing it Chelsea had taught me that the importances of giving people a second change because others and ourselves do change. If I had shut Chelsea out of my life I would have lost a chance of having someone that now means so much in my life.
