Hello everyone. This week blossomed into a very special one for me as one of my best friends from France, Cecile, came to visit.

The year after I graduated from college, I won a grant to study philosophy in Paris for one year. Although my dream had been to study in France, my arrival left me wanting to turn right around and return home. I landed at Charles de Gaulle airport with two blue Samsonite suitcases. Tired from the overnight flight, I grabbed the suitcases off the belt and headed off to find the train to get to the city. Twenty-one and fashion-concious, I had stuffed pretty much every item of clothing I owned into those suitcases. After several hours of trains, metros and some walking with these two bricks (without wheels), I arrived in my box of a dorm room (tiny enough to fit a single bed, with brown-stained walls), looked down at the suitcases and saw a tag on one saying “Mr. Thierry”. I had taken the wrong suitcase! Not what I had dreamed of for the first day of my study abroad experience. My day went from bad to miserable as I headed back to the airport to exchange suitcases with Mr. Thierry, a nice older fellow.

The next day, I awoke, got dressed and headed down to breakfast. Breakfast at an American University is a pretty social affair and I remember correctly, you can sit down with just about anyone and spark up a conversation. Not so much at my new school. Students lined up to grab their baguette and coffee with milk and then sat down in close-knit groups. I sat by myself, over-hearing some guys with long hair talk about some esoteric French poet.

Several days later — after tear-filled conversations with my parents and lonely walks in Paris — my entire life changed when a pretty girl sat down next to me and informed me that she loved Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, especially Total Recall. We immediately became friends. Cecile guided me through the sinewy administration of our school, explaining how to get my room painted and where to shop for food. I visited her family in Orleans and became friendly with her family also.

Twenty-five years later, we are just as close, meeting up in France or the U.S. when we can to maintain our long distance friendship. Cecile is a step-mom to two kids and loves to play with mine. Here they are last week.

How blessed we are when friendships stand the test of time and distance. When you can pick up with a friend you haven’t seen for months and talk about your greatest joys and deepest challenges. We talked about kids, parents, work, friendship, with a bit of fashion thrown in too! That’s what I call a dear, old friend.

If you have any dear, old friends, college friends or otherwise, and want to share why your friendship has stood the test of time, please share below!

Thanks so much for reading and don’t forget to enter our weekly giveaway!

Love,

Melissa

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