Matthew Duncan

You’ve Got a Friend in Me

            It’s the first day of preschool, 2003. I’m about two years old (almost three) and I’ve never been as excited and nervous in my elder life as a two year old. My sneakers felt like they were buzzing under my tiny socks. My Luke Skywalker backpack started to tremble as I walked closer to the school. My teeth sounded like a machine gun firing bullets because they were chattering so much. I was prepared for the endless work of “school”, staying up late for my naps, doing jumping jacks for recess, and building up a huge appetite, I was ready for all the hard work and dedication of preschool. But, right before I was about to open the doors to the pit known as school, I had to grasp onto my mother’s leg because all the pressure building up was just too much for my little body to handle.

“I don’t wanna go mommy!” I bawled while my eyes produced the wet droplets that would soon be all over my face. My mother was in disbelief, she thought that I was ready for preschool so she was shocked when I broke down.

She hesitated when she said, “What do you mean? I thought you said you were ready for preschool, what changed your mind?” While my mother was trying to soothe me by trying to bribe me with Chips Ahoy after school, I saw someone about my age coming up slowly with their parent about to drop them off as well.

“I have no friends here!” Was my response to my mother’s question. Right when I was about to make a sprint to my mother’s car and never come out, the kid that was behind us finally spoke up.

“I’ll be your friend.” He said with a voice almost like mine. I jolted and looked behind me to see the kid who just said this unbelievable statement. He had brown hair, a green shirt on, and was also wearing a Star Wars backpack but his was a different color and had R2-D2 on the front.

“What?” Was the only word that came out of my mouth when I quickly looked behind me.

“Yeah” He said with the most monotone voice.

My response was then, “Okay” and literally all the tears that were pouring down my face either evaporated or just completely vanished. I said goodbye to my mom and he said goodbye to his mother and we walked in together. He told me his name was Ethan then I told my name to him and we instantly became best friends. We figured out we were both only children, both of us liked Star Wars, and we loved chocolate chip cookies. We had a great time at preschool and would wait for each other at the front of the school and then we would basically talk about the same thing every day because we would forget what we said the day before so we would say it again the next day. Once our brains developed a little bit more in Elementary School to where we wouldn’t forget things so easily, we kind of got a little bored with each other because we would spend so much time together during and after school. So when it got time to go to middle school Ethan had to go to Cave Spring while I had to go to Hidden Valley. You would think that we would be really upset, but it actually turned out for the best because we could still easily talk to each other but we didn’t have to everyday so it made the friendship fresh and new again in a way. When both of us went to Carowinds for his birthday a couple weeks ago I was just thinking to myself how great a friend Ethan has been for the past 13 years of our lives. I’ve stood up for him in the past and he’s done the same for me and it just amazes me still how long this friendship has lasted. I met Ethan on the first day of preschool and I was honestly not expecting it to last as long as it has but I’m glad it has because Ethan is a great guy and I’m happy that I met him on that nerve-wracking day.