I wonder if parts of her would still be knowable to me. On one road trip, her parents told me about the University of Virginia, a beautiful school they said they could see me attending. Because her siblings were older, she was often permitted to bring me along as her plus-one, a surrogate sister at water parks and college visits. Val’s big house and big family provided a trove of elder siblings’ high school yearbooks and sorority photo albums, paving the way for our own exciting future. We were completely ourselves and utterly at ease with each other, which I still consider one of the truest gifts of friendship. She softened me, and I like to think I coaxed her out of her shell, but in many ways we were alike: two hairy late bloomers who bleached their mustaches in tandem (a ritual that forges the most intimate of bonds).

My boldness and Val’s sweetness swirled into a yin-yang. I can recall no meet-cute, however, just that Valerie and I were as thick as thieves from elementary school through high school graduation.

Shania twain you re still the one live