The Part of Our Friendship We Kept

I had a best friend in middle school. Our birthdays are two days apart, except I’m a year older than her. For two days every year, we would joke that we were the same age. It was one of those silly little things that probably didn’t mean much to anyone else, but we made something of it between us. We stayed in touch over the years and would meet up occasionally, even way after high school and college. When I still lived on the East Coast, it was relatively easy. We weren’t even in the same state, but we were close enough that staying connected didn’t require much effort. At least, we were in the same time zone. Then I moved to the West Coast in 2019, and somewhere along the way, things changed. I wouldn’t say we outgrew our friendship. There wasn’t a falling out or some defining moment when we stopped being friends. We just naturally drifted apart. We rarely talk anymore, sometimes going long stretches without speaking at all. And yet, somehow, one little tradition has survived all…