Karla

I don't remember the exact moment I met Karla, but I knew that we would be lifelong friends.

We met at a youth group. There was something that I loved about youth group culture: the interesting messages, the genuine fellowship and fun games. But above all, the most encouraging factor was to see young people who loved God and served Him passionately. We eventually stopped going, but our friendship blossomed and remained.

Karla would come over my house and we would make Italian food. I would go over her house and we would cook Salvadoran food. Afterwards, we would read Proverbs, meditate and share from our hearts. She introduced me to different personality theories and how to read people. We would also discuss literature and practice French. Our friendship was golden.

Of course we had our fair share of romantic interests and heart-breaks. We even had nicknames for the guys we went out with:  "the Jewish", "the Jehovah Witness", "the Guitarist", "the Non-stop Talker", "the Combo", etc. We had a varied taste back then, but none of them worked out. I was there for her when she broke up with her boyfriend. She was there when I broke up with my best friend. We would read Psalms and pray whenever we went through major ordeals in our lives.

Our friendship evolved over the years. Even though I went to Canada to study, I would always meet up with her whenever I visited home. She is one of the few people that I really care about in my life.

This year I had the honour to embark on a journey with her to celebrate her 30th birthday and 7 years of our friendship. And as she said, once we hit the 7-year mark, this friendship is bound to last for a lifetime.