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Making Forever Friends
Casey Emory
Casey Emory: My first best friend was in fifth grade. And let me tell you, we had so many things in common. As a fifth grader, I saw a new face and asked her things on the first day of school, just to simply get to know her better. I asked her questions like, “What’s your name? What kind of food do you like? When’s your birthday?” We could say I was a pretty straightforward person at that time. We later found out that our birthday was one day apart. We were both biracial. And we had many other things in common. We hung out a lot and spent a lot of our time either making slime or doing homework together.
But we drifted apart when we both moved on to middle school. During this phase, I tried to find various friend groups that I thought I would fit best with. It wasn’t easy for me to find a place to fit in. And sometimes I would even feel awkward because I felt like I was still learning how to navigate my identity, being both African-American and Filipino. Now I want to ask you, do you still remember your first best friend? To someone still in school like me, friendships are so important. We’re testing our independence and we want to have someone standing by us that understands what we’re going through, someone going through the same thing at the same time. And it’s like this in between after childhood. And to me, not having true friends felt isolating. But don’t get me wrong though. I had many childhood friends till this day and we’re still on great terms. But this was the time when I started to realize the true value of friendships.
Starting middle school was a big transition and challenge for me. So I prayed to God to help me through this period. But then I started thinking, what makes a good friend? In my opinion, this includes commonality, we have honesty, humor, reliability, and trust, just to name a few. We can share similar religious beliefs and hobbies, food’s important, and movies and the list just goes on. A friend is someone I can confide in, who’s trustworthy and shares the innermost thoughts about things happening in the world, and in their personal life, whether good or bad. I think this helps a friendship become stronger over time. And I love friends who bring out the energy in each other, that’s filled with laughter and a myriad of silly stuff that for sure brings a unique joy to their friendship. Friends are always there for one another, no matter the circumstances. These were a part of my prayer for friendship.
When COVID-19 struck the world, it was a weird transition added to the mix. But I believe my experience during quarantine brought me here to this stage. I thought I felt isolated before, being physically isolated during the pandemic was different. Now, it may sound a little extra but when I was in seventh grade, I received a life-changing email during quarantine about paper airplanes. And I know I know, “What do you mean, Casey? How was that life changing?” Everyone was stuck at home, bored, especially us students attending online school. It felt like a constant school, eat, repeat kind of cycle but in a boring way to me. So when I received an email from my resident minister encouraging all the youth to attend a paper airplane-making activity, you know I had to log on. Paper airplane-making after being stuck home for months, as simple as it sounds, you know, I’m gonna be there.
The paper airplane-making itself was as exciting as it sounds. But something happened after the activity. I felt happy and content. Maybe it was because we all had been isolated for a while, but deep inside, I knew this was the beginning to an answered prayer. And standing here now, I know it for sure. The youth officers of the Binhi organization felt familiar to me even though we had never met. I felt a pull to them, and each following activity I attended on video conferencing. Eventually they started to invite me to help out, and pretty soon I was leading activities. Do you see how this all snowballed? Like all of this for paper airplanes. Oh no, I almost hit the camera.
I was starting to feel like I belonged. And I was making a difference for others like me, who is searching for community. Performing as a youth officer, every time I met with a group I became more comfortable with all the bonds and conversations we shared with each other as we planned activities. After years of looking for a group of friends that I thought I would fit best with, I finally felt like I found true friends or so to say forever friends. In my own local congregation, some of my friends and I see each other several times a week for worship services, meetings, and activities. And together we planned out tote bag painting activities, board game nights, movie nights, and outdoor sports activities.
District and local Church activities, especially post-pandemic helped me tremendously with starting and maintaining my current friendships. District activities gave me an opportunity to catch up with my other friends throughout my district and meet new friends. Attending activities and meetings whether it was online or in person, boosted my self-confidence incredibly, and my social skills too because I felt like I lacked those traits previously. Leading activities as an officer also helped me be more comfortable in initiating conversations with brethren. And speaking in small or large groups, just like right now. Not only has my duty as a youth group officer led me to new friends but it was one of the main experiences that helped me grow as a person and most especially in my faith. I didn’t feel like I belonged. But now I do because of the love and community I found when I needed it the most.
As I grew closer to my peers in my church community, I realized that I found people that I was looking for with the qualities that you look for in friends, and they were a positive influence on me to strengthen those same qualities in myself. Not only that, but they were the friends who are always done to get food or boba together. Like if they were to ask me “Oh, Cas you want to get food?” I’m like, “Oh sure, let’s go.” I was really only looking for friends. But God made sure that that blessing extended far beyond that. What started as a simple activity led me to being blessed to be the district Binhi or youth president in my district. So take this piece of advice, be consistent in attending activities in your district and within your local as well. And if you have already been consistent, there’s room for more to do, so you’re good. Be present and see where God takes you from there. My new friends introduced me to a duty as a youth officer that is such a blessing in making my faith stronger and making me closer to God. And I am grateful. Thank you.
