Swinging along with my friends

Janet Tronstad here.

I don’t know about you, but I loved to swing high as a girl. I grew up on a farm in rural Montana with few neighbors and one of the exciting things about finally being able to go to school was having the swings. The other great discovery was friends.

Now, in my young age, I had a brother and a sister so I knew about siblings. And I had some delightful cousins. But, until school, I was not in regular contact with other non-related young girls to make any friends.

So it was only fitting that I was sitting on a swing next to Nancy Baker when I had one of those moments that I’ll remember all my life – I was quite awestruck to realize I had a friend. Not just someone to play with (although we did that). Or talk to. But someone who had crossed some line and became a friend. I don’t know what I thought a friend was in my young mind, but I do know it was something like ‘this is a person you can count on.’ Nancy and I stayed friends all through school (first grade to our senior year in high school) and she truly was someone I could always count on.

In the years since then, I have been blessed with an abundance of friends but I will always cherish those young years of friendship. I’m wondering if you’d like to share something you remember about your first friends? Do you remember what you thought friends were back in the early years?