The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Lately i've been bombarded with a LOT of sappy chick reminders about my girls. It all started with watching Little Women, a couple weeks ago...and Candice, when Beth died all I could think of was you, hun. Even though I completely protest to Amy marrying Laurie (he belongs with Jo!), the four sisters of Little Women have always inspired me.

After that, it was "Now and Then" which is totally crazy how old that movie is now. Before Demi Moore became "old and hot," before Melanie Griffith became known as Antonio Banderas' wifey, and when Rosie O'Donnell was in her heyday: there was this incredible story about four girls growing up in the early 1970s.

And it looks like it's time for another "coming-of-age" classic: the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I know, i know, it seems stupid that a girl who just turned 22 should be aww'ing over teeny-bopper things like this...but there's something about the story of four girls whose friendship helps them through all the mysteries and trials of life...there's something about that story that never dies with us.

And then I was going through my old photo collection...and there it was: birthday dinners at Le Caille and meeting weird Lebanese club owners we thought were in the mafia, locking ourselves in a bathroom and taking pictures while a birthday party was going on downstairs (and listening to Amanda Marshall's crooning tunes about why he doesn't love her the way she loves him), prom pictures at the park downtown, jumping into the lake at Camp Chestermere, Montreal and toenail clippings on bed, Shakespeare in the park and out of the blue, going on our first road trip to BC with the guys and learning that the key to breaking the ice is in making bathroom jokes about being a "champion", then coming home for Christmas and going to Earls...summer and we're going to BC, another Christmas, and we're having dinner parties in Alo's basement, summer and we're crammed in the Stampede grounds with sweaty concert goers, yet another Christmas, and we're taking photos at Tru's place with a wooden alligator...

Four years goes by, and my photo album is filled with all these memories. My inbox is filled with Sunday emails. And soon, our lives will go through another drastic change and we'll have to adjust the way we think and relate to one another. One of us will be that much closer to the white picket fence. Another will be pursuing her dream, immersed in this amazing career. Another will be breaking away, finally taking her turn to fly after seeing so many others leave the nest before her. And then there's the one who will be waiting, waiting for God and life to catch up with her dreams, or maybe it's the other way around.

Remember the story I wrote for you, four years ago upon our high school graduation? It feels like a part of it has disappeared into the vellum paper it was printed on....and somewhere else, on a different paper made of a darker, more textured "tooth"...a new story has begun to appear.