My best friend's getting married

I've known this day was coming. For eleven years now, since we became bff's overnight at community college, I've known it. And now, though it's been on the horizon for six months, it's not always real to me: my best friend's getting married. But tonight, at her shower, watching her sit so poised and radiant with a veil cascading down her back, talking about how they met and the Proposal, it sunk in.

I first noticed her in a calculus class. The girl at the table next to me with the colorful striped socks. Surely she is cool, I thought, because she's got good taste in socks. My intuition was spot on, and we struck up a friendship one afternoon while studying in a common area at the college. That was eleven years ago. Since then, we've each been through multiple boyfriends, heartbreaks, late-night study sessions, college graduations, life tragedies, celebrations, new jobs, new apartments, road trips, birthdays, funerals, adventures, and now, a wedding. We've been roommates several times (I thought we resembled the Odd Couple). We've prayed hours and hours together, worshiped together while I jammed on my guitar, cried together, laughed hysterically together, dressed up in funny costumes together, adopted a grandpa together, shared the deepest things of our hearts. She's the one of the most loyal, faithful, hang-with-you-till-the-day-you-die friends I've had the pleasure of knowing. She's more like a sister than anything else. I'd do anything for her, and she'd do the same in a heartbeat. There aren't many friends that come through this life that you believe will be around for your whole life, especially if you've moved around a lot like me and aren't great at keeping in touch long distance. But years ago, I finally let myself accept that she was one of those friends that wasn't going anywhere, no matter where we lived.

And now she's getting married.

From the depths of my heart, I'm happy for her. So happy. This is right, it's what she's wanted. He's right for her. But I don't know why, it's hard to give her away. It's hard to think of closing such a long chapter, punctuating it, and turning the page to start writing a new one. I don't know what it will look like, much like everything else in my life. But I'm learning to trust that, though a different chapter, we can still be beautiful characters in each other's stories.