Gratituesday: Kristin

So you might remember me mentioning my BFF Kristin. Maybe once or twice. She does this thing on her blog called Gratituesday. I thought I'd borrow an electronic page from her book and try it out here.

Today's first Gratituesday is dedicated to...Kristin!

Kristin and I met when we were in the same Girl Scout Troop when we were still in middle school. Don't make the mistake of believing we were outdoorsy women. No. Think more "Troop Beverly Hills" and you'll get a pretty accurate impression of how we operated. Nonetheless, it is where we first met and where a lifelong friendship began.

Kristin did an incredibly touching Gratituesday about me back in July here, and it does a much better job of describing the origins and evolution of our friendship than I ever could. So let me, instead, describe the kind of wonderful person Kristin is.

Kristin is one of the smartest people I know. She is, and always has been, involved in a tremendous amount of things. In college she managed to keep up with an intellectual course load and start an open submissions publication called Call and Response, which is still in operation today. She studied at Oxford University for a year and when she graduated, she didn't slow down. Between working and keeping up with a demanding social life, Kristin began teaching poetry and creative writing, for FREE.

When some of us (i.e. me) were moving back into their parents' houses and floundering, Kristin went full steam forward, moved to Brooklyn, and landed a job at a publishing house. Today she's living in Manhattan, getting her MA in Poetry from a top notch university, and successfully keeping her cat, Virginia Woolf, alive. And now I'm jealous seeing it all written out.

I got to see her read her poetry this weekend, and was struck by how the girl I knew when I was 12 years old has grown into this confident, talented woman. She is constantly an inspiration to me to strive for more and to work at what you love. I don't think she ever slows down. She is taking advantage of every opportunity given to her and leading this amazing life for some one as young as us. And she always has time to text with me when stress is getting to me or when I need advice.

I am incredibly proud of her. My best friend, Kristin, is a poet who will one day be teaching creative writing to a whole new generation of writers and will be standing next to me as my Best Woman this September. I only hope everyone is as lucky as I am to meet their best friend so young and to have a role model/sister/teacher/companion all rolled into one.

So thank you Kristin, for being the best BFF a woman could ask for.