FINALLY

When I was 7, I changed schools from Encino Elementary to Welby Way Elementary, which was across the Valley from my house but had a good magnet program. I knew exactly no one, but kids tend to be accepting and friendly in the second grade, and I don’t remember being lonely for long. A few weeks after the start of the school year, I got invited to my classmate Terza’s eighth birthday party, camping in Wheeler Gorge.

We’ve been best friends ever since.

Terza didn’t have any pets yet, but even at 7 she knew she wanted to be veterinarian (she did, however, have the largest collection of Littlest Pet Shop toys of anyone I knew). So it was extra super cool to be able to go to Davis last weekend and see her graduate from vet school (which she completed at the same time she was working on her PhD, which she finished last year. Have I mentioned she’s a genius?)

Two train, a bus, and plane ride later, I got to Davis late Friday night and got to hang out with Terza’s family and boyfriend for a while until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. After a lot of coffee and bagels Saturday morning, our cheering section made our way to the university campus to watch the graduation ceremony. It was super long, as are most graduation ceremonies, but there was a dog on stage in a tiny graduation cap so that was entertaining. The faculty speaker walked around the auditorium as he talked, which also helped keep me awake until they got to the name-reading part.

After the graduation was basically and entire day and night of celebrating. I may have celebrated a bit too hard and was feeling not so spiffy the next day; fortunately, some gatorade, a mid-morning nap, and Panda Express helped clear that up, and we spent the afternoon hanging out at a brewery/winery a few miles away.

On Monday we took a road trip to Sly Park, which is between Sacramento and Tahoe. The weather was absolutely amazing, and after several days of sitting and eating in various locations it was nice to move and be in nature. We accidentally cut our hike short by looping back to where we had started after about 30 minutes, but by then we were all hungry anyway so we went down to the lake to relax and watch the Memorial Day tourists make fools of themselves while boating.

On my last day in town, I got to have some quality solo time with Terz. She’ll be moving to Oakland soon to start work, so we did some cardboard box gathering and packed up some of the fragile stuff and drove down to her soon-to-be new home. We also ate THE MOST DELICIOUS TACOS at this place a few minutes away.

Even though we only get to see each other every year or two, it’s still so incredible to me that I have a friend I’ve known for 23 years. I’m so proud of everything she’s done so far and can’t wait to see what she does next!