She likes to talk.
She’ll talk about anything: the weather, the time, what she did yesterday, what she ate for dinner. It doesn’t matter when: during a movie, during class, during lunch, during free time. Almost everyone has held a conversation with her, and almost everyone holds an opinion about her. She is likewise opinionated.
Sometimes she’s clumsy or bursts out with precisely the wrong phrase, but all in good nature. Laughing at oneself could be classified as a virtue; if so, it is one she exemplifies. No saint is she, but a good and trustworthy friend—and isn’t that better than a saint in any case? She loves life and she loves her family and friends. Her very being is vital and full of burning purpose. The future to her has no clear path, but a thousand possibilities; she plunges forward, undaunted, to seek the life she wants and grab hold of it, shape it, mold it to her liking. She is strong.
Athletics are a passion of hers, especially endurance sports, like running, swimming. Endurance is a word for her: she works at her friendships and works with people, to help them and lead them in as much good as she can. She makes mistakes, as we all do, but she has never let that stop her. Her actions and strength show her endurance as no race ever could.
Above it all, she is a normal teenage girl. She has crushes, she has drama, she makes mistakes and rights them-- but she is a strong teenage girl. Dependency is a foreign concept to her; she is strong and willful and always puts one hundred percent into the things she loves. She could stand alone as easily as she can stand in a group; stand with one friend as easily as a thousand. There are people who dislike her, who see her differently, perhaps, than I; there are those who don’t see past the image, don’t see past the stereotype or the things she says in haste and temper. But truly blessed are those who can call her a friend: those who can find the person under all the layers of high school masquerade, those who see through the veneer of fool or athlete and have seen her iron core and steel determination.
Thank you, Sarah, for sticking with me for four years. It will be hard to fill the desk you’ve left, and the place you’ve left as a companion and friend. Best of luck in your future—whatever you do, I know you will succeed. You’re just that kind of girl.