Thanksgiving in August: Sarah (Locals edition - 1 of 4)

I met Sarah in high school, so I have known her for more than fifteen years. Like many of my friends "from high school," however, we were not close back then. Sarah was much cooler than me in high school. And is, in all reality, still way cooler than I am, way more in touch with what is going on in the world, way more in tune with popular culture, way more hip to trends that I wish I were cool enough to be following.

Most people, I guess, would describe Sarah as ethereal. She does have this way about her that I can't really describe. Sarah doesn't really follow the rules of society in the way that the rest of our group of friends does. We schedule things but we never really know if Sarah's gonna show up. We almost always expect her to be late. Not because she's irresponsible or interested in keeping us waiting or anything like that. Sarah's just on her own timetable, and she frequently has more important things to do. As her friends – and this is true of all friends and all friendships, I think – it is our job to understand all of this and neither worry about the state of our friendship (it is solid) or get stressed out about this timetable (it is of infinitesimal importance).

From not knowing Sarah very well in high school to spending loads of time with her, Sarah has become one of my all-time favorite people. Our mutual friend Jaime and I constantly talk about how incredible we think Sarah is. She's the kind of person that would be really embarrassed if I ever told her I admired her, but oh man do I. She is always thinking about other people. We have spent hours in conversation where she will tell me and our friends about other people and their struggles, about the rough time someone else is going through, of the ways that we can think about helping, of lonely people who need their hands held. The woman is extraordinary.

Our high school group of friends is technically not very small, but the "locals" are an even smaller group of five of us that would meet for coffee away from the other group because we lived closer together - local. This group of my friends is the most amazing clutch of people. We have these conversations sometimes where two conversations are happening at once but all five of us are in both conversation, where we can pick up in the middle of any of them, and go back to conversations we were having months previous.

And when Jaime moved to Seattle and I moved to Tallahassee, the locals all, even more firmly than we already were, committed to emailing each other all the time. Sarah is the best at this. She sends us news reports and hilarious items from Etsy and stories about feminism. This week it was the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck and hobbit houses in Wales. I love getting these little items. It's like Sarah keeps me in her head all the time, thinking about things I am going to think are interesting. And more often than not, she is right. Sarah is always highly attuned to my traveling, as well. She never fails to text me when I am flying, making sure I get in safe and always wanting to know the moment I get in to California or back into Florida.

I am so grateful to have Sarah in my life. I always appreciate her wisdom, her generosity, her amazing creative abilities, and her constant attention to and care for others. I want to be her when I grow up.