For splits_thesky on her birthday~~

** This entry will probably be too late to be properly about her birthday, but the sentiment is still there. This was originally meant to be typed up for our ~ anniversary ~ in August but Hurricane Irene had a hissy fit and threw off my groove that weekend. So I typed it up in Chicago while she was sleeping. :P **

When I was growing up I had a few friends, but they were always more of the kind that did things with me because I was just the only other kid around, or we had shared interests. Whenever I would watch TV or movies and friends would do extraordinary things for their friends I wondered what universe they were in. My friends were always sort of mean. We'd do mean things to each other but that's just what I knew. I didn't know what it was like to have friends who did things selflessly for me or out of genuine love. I guess by today's terms my old friends would be frenemies. They kept me on my toes and I was always aware that I might leave the room and return to find my bag thrown on the top of a library shelf, my action figure missing, money "lost" from my wallet or my cell thrown to the back of a dark theatre. Sometimes I'd even have to find my own way back home because my friends left without me or hear "I don't really care about this, Lia," whenever I rambled on about who knows what. That's just how my friends were.

So when I became friends with splits_thesky over livejournal, I didn't think much of it. I'd had internet friends before. They were cool, but they only added the shared interest aspect to IRL friendships. Now I can say that my internet friends are some of my closest and best friends, especially the ones I've met on LJ. But splits_thesky really changed a lot of things for me. I can't really say where I would be without her. The majority of the traveling I have done in the last few years is entirely because of her. I wouldn't have been able to go to Chicago, Boston, Philly, Princeton or DC as quickly as I have or even be planning future trips to other places without her. Things like Tippo the Hippo, "Is that David Henrie?", ChanBell, Charming Potato, Team Tesla, Igor, "He just wanted a hug!" and "That shit was tight as hell!" wouldn't mean anything. And if they did, they wouldn't mean what they do right now. I've had so many experiences that are because of splits_thesky and I'm eternally grateful to her for that.

But it's not just about where we've gone physically (hurr hurr) together, but how she's made me a better person and what she's made me realize about myself and my other friendships. She's made me less selfish and more thoughtful--I've started picking up random gifts for her and others when out and about because I've watched her take special trips to stores just for her nephews or her brothers and tell stories about geeky purchases comprised of mostly gifts for others. The only time I'd ever buy things for others before was because they had a birthday soon or Christmas time was coming. She's made me a better listener because she listens to the random shit I'm into and reads my ADD comments about random links and long entries about this one time that a podcast came to NYC and makes me want to be that sort of friend to her as well. Splits has done a lot of things relatively selfless (youuuu are not a Hufflepuff, my friend, we know this) for me in ways that no one really ever has. And it's by knowing her and seeing these things play out every day over texts and through daily interactions that I start to realize that she's my first ever real, true, friend.

She's been as patient with me in real life as she has online and somehow she keeps coming back to hang out with me in a city that she could take or leave and keeps inviting me back to her various homes at college and at her family's home. She's the only one willing to travel to hole-in-the-walls and listen to me drone on about that one guy I know or that person I like and somehow make it seem like she cares and isn't actually shaking her head and sighing, "Oh, Lia, you little lost thing, you," on the other end of the phone. She will drag me to someplace she's never been for the ~*~experience~*~ and we'll make it our own experience, even if it sucks horribly, like the time we went to Bronx Comic Con and had to walk for blocks in costumes for a contest we never entered.

I sincerely hope everyone has a chance to have at least half the kind of friend that splits_thesky is for me. Because I know how it is to live life without someone like her and it's not something I would ever recommend.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY GREATEST OF FRIENDS, DIVYA. I HOPE IT'S BEEN A GREAT DAY AND I WISH YOU A MILLION MORE, YOU ARE THE SIRIUS TO MY REMUS AND THE R2 TO MY 3P0. <3333