I have a friend named after a dinosaur. Steggy. Yep Steggy, as in stegosaurus, her favorite dinosaur. Sure it’s not her birth given name but its what she goes by. Believe me I’ve shouted it across a store or two and received some strange looks but I call her by it anyway, well that or Steggs. If I ever do call her by her “real” name, which is Erika, I feel kind of weird which is funny because the name Erika is pretty normal compared to her nickname.
If you looked at us now you would never know that my first impression of her was not a good one. We were in a summer school class together. The class was Digital Art which is just a class teaching you about programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, all of the above being completely foreign to me. That class was such a struggle for me and I worked super hard on my projects. Well just like every art class we had critique. There was one project I had worked really hard on and I just knew no one would say anything bad about it…I was wrong. Now the first thing you have to know about ole Steggo is she will tell you how it is. The girl has no problem speaking her mind, which now I totally admire about her, but at that moment I took it as her being rude. She basically said my project was boring, which honestly it was. She also said that there wasn’t a clear point, which there really wasn’t. Me being the emotional creature I always am, I secretly vowed to never pay any attention to her ever again. No matter how awesome I thought her glasses were and even though I wanted to tell her that I loved Marc Jacobs too I didn’t, because I had decided she was a rude girl.
Well the next spring we had a class together. I walked in and saw her and instantly put a guard up. But if there’s anything I hate more then being bashed in a critique, I hate sitting in a class without a friend. So I sat next to her and introduced myself as the girl she had a summer school class with. She said hey and then things were kind of awkward. I don’t really know when we really became friends but I feel like it had to be in one of the next classes. That whole class was spent laughing about stupid jokes or talking about our Harry Potter obsession. I soon realized that I was completely wrong about her and that this girl was probably the coolest person on the face of the planet. Now we’re pretty much always together. She knows everything about me. She always speaks her mind. She never judges. She makes me laugh harder then anyone. She’s my best friend. A girl I once avoided is now someone I talk to everyday. A true “don’t judge a book” story.
Last weekend I went home with her to New Orleans and it was one of the best trips ever, one of many I hope. I met her amazing family and feel like I have a second home now. I can’t wait for her to meet my mum and dad because they will love her. I’m glad I took a second look at the possibility of us being friends, because if I hadn’t then I wouldn’t have anybody to talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer with, laugh about our high school emo days, wear friendship bracelets saying Best Friends Since 1998 even though we’ve only been friends for two years, argue about how Jason Mraz is NOT cross-eyed, or talk about serious stuff with that I would feel weird telling anyone else. So yeah I have a friend named after a dinosaur…
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