Different From Birth

I have a friend. Someone that grew up with me and I with her. Her name was Nikki and although we were friends, we couldn’t have had more different childhoods. For starters, my family was more involved with me. Going on little adventures to appease my imagination, things like learning to hike, watching my dad rock climb and the like. Nikki though, her parents were very busy. Having one parent in construction working all day and the other gone on business trips for weeks at a time. While I had my sister when my parents were sometimes busy with work, she was an only child who needed to make her own fun, on her own. I spent quite a bit of time with my family, at my house or wherever they would lead me while she spent most of her time at school doing events instead of in her home where she would make dinner and go to sleep. No, instead of staying home and bored out her mind she would fill her life with events and friends. She would hold competitions of wall ball, one thing I enjoyed immensely but didn’t understand why she was always starting them at that point. She also did sports, as apart of the events she enjoyed so much. Her favorite sport being free-running. It took skill, hours of work to be good at it, and was very good for keeping someone occupied. I never got into sports, although I did take another route that took up time (music). But what was different is that again, I practice at home, playing for my family and taking critique. Nikki though, practiced away from home, free-running through parks, climbing walls, climbing trees even. As for her friends, she made everyone be sure her presence wherever she went. Introducing herself to people, laughing and being jovial. In fact, she was the one who went up to me. Possibly because of how interaction is with my family, I am content with not being popular and having a small circle. While Nikki though, wouldn’t stop until she she had at least tried to learn the majority of people’s names. One difference though that stood out to me, as a child with a simpler mind than I have now, was how much more money she had. Her parents worked hard to support her, even if they couldn’t be around. She would get an allowance, and was able to get things that I couldn’t. Now, I wasn’t poor, I was middle class and on a budget in order to make sure my family wouldn’t fall in debt. So I was never really able to get all the things I wanted, and with my birthday and Christmas being so close, my opportunities for toys was not quite as expansive as hers. Yes I would say I was envious as a kid because of all the things she was able to get. Yet, despite all of our differences, we still managed to become good friends, and good friends we stayed.