In honor of my best friend, Maria Laura Jorges’ birthday this week I’ve decided to share the story of how we became the best friends we are today. Before Maria J came to St. Joes from NDPA, my best friend was Maria Garcia. She had been basically my only close friend since third or fourth grade. Anyways, it was the first day of seventh grade; Maria G and I were standing with the rest of our grade waiting for the teachers to let us inside. All of a sudden we hear a voice ask “Don’t you know Tristen?” The voice was obviously not addressing me…Tristen was Maria G’s friend from dance who apparently also went to NDPA with Maria J. That is how our duo became a trio…this is not to say I was very happy with this. For mostly all of seventh grade I readily disliked Maria J, and according to her I made that quite apparent ;)

It wasn’t until the summer before seventh grade that I began to like Maria J. We had planned a sleepover and a day at the mall. She came over to my house and the next day we went hung out at the mall and then saw Shrek 3 (I still have the movie stub from this memorable day). This was the day I realized that Maria J wasn’t that bad, she was genuinely a sweet person and she was definitely not faking it as I had previously thought. Throughout eighth grade Maria, Maria, and I became the best of friends. I was there for Maria J’s Justin Bieber phase, I even watched his movie about 100 times, that’s how obsessed she was ;) Our friendship has only grown stronger throughout high school. Even though we may butt heads at times, we are quick to forgive and forget. Mostly because we have funny things to share with each other ;)

To this day I have never met a person as truly sweet at my little Maria. Even though at first I really didn’t like her, now I wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world. Maria is so genuinely sweet and caring, she will always put your needs before her own. Maria has so much potential and I know she will work hard to get far in life. I admire her a lot.

We’ve been through these crazy high school years by each other’s side and I don’t know how I would have survived without her. Happy 18^th Birthday Mary George! Here’s to many more years of our friendship, I love you!