2024/Mei-

"All your life you're yellow. Then one day you brush up against something blue, the barest touch, and voila, the rest of your life you're green.” - Tess Callahan

I’ve met many people from all around the world. That’s the benefit of attending military schools. My parents are DoDs teachers, so, although I may not have the exciting opportunity to travel around the world and experience different cultures, I still have the exciting opportunity to become friends with the people that have traveled. I can’t say how many of my friends have moved away ever since Kindergarten, but I can say how each one has allowed me to grow and become the lucky person I am today.

In Kindergarten, I made a friend named Fiona. She had golden curly hair, chocolate brown eyes, bright pink carnations blooming across her cheeks, and was from Spain. I had pin straight chestnut hair, dark chocolate brown eyes, with bright red hibiscuses blooming across my cheeks. I previously attended a Japanese preschool, so I struggled with speaking English. I barely spoke out loud in class, but Fiona, she was determined to talk to me. Everyday we would hang out by the playground and she would talk to me- knowing I didn’t understand a word she said, but she didn’t give up on me. She probably talked about her favorite color, favorite food, favorite TV show. I would nod my head yes and shake my head no randomly to show her I was interested in whatever it was she said, but she knew I didn’t understand.

She invited me to come to her house one day, where I met her mom, who made us ham and cheese sandwiches with the edges cut off. Her house radiated a warm and cozy, caramel brown. Fiona’s mom illuminated a dark yet caring forest green, full of nurture and gentleness.Fiona’s mom asked for my mom’s phone number, but I had so much trouble translating the numbers from Japanese to English in my head, that, although giggling, Fiona’s mom understood it was easier for me to write it down. My face flared a cherry scarlet- I was so embarrassed! Not only did I struggle to speak in front of Fiona, but in front of her mom too! But that day, I decided she would become my best friend in the whole wide world.

After, Fiona’s mom served us apple slices and peanut butter, but Fiona turned to her mom and started to speak a completely different language. I was appalled. Fiona knows two languages! She’s so cool! I thought, the shock on my face was clearly visible, Fiona started to giggle- emitting bright bubbles of pink and purples which popped around her, making the whole house a priceless painting- speaking to me in English. I figured she told me she knew two languages to comfort me when we first met, but seeing I didn’t know English, decided to show me at home instead. Ever since that day, I worked twice as hard in school, practicing English, so I could be as cool as Fiona and speak a different language. Fiona and I hung out almost everyday after school, and eventually, I became fluent enough that I understood most of what we talked about. One day, we were on the swings in the middle of the radiant rainbow playground, and she stopped. So, being her best friend, I stopped. I asked her with my broken English if she was okay, and she turns to me, asking,

“Do you know why I wanted to become friends with you?”

I shook my head.

“I struggled learning English too. I wanted you to know you’re not alone.” She said, grinning at me with missing teeth. Her tongue a sick, bright blue from the raspberry popsicles we had during lunch. I smile back, with missing teeth and also a sick blue tongue. I stood up to hug her, hoping she’d never leave.

Come end of Kindergarten, we’re all dressed in our tiny graduation gowns with our tiny graduation caps. Our teeth have grown in. We’re slightly taller, hair darker, skin more tan. Fiona and I run to the swings on the playground, claiming our spots before the other kids do. We swing until we feel like we’re flying, laughing at nothing but the feeling of the wind in our hair. We challenge ourselves to name all the colors of the beaming sunset. “Orange!” “Nooo! Sunset orange!” “Woah!! Pink!” “Golden yellow!” “Look!! Periwinkle!”

But Fiona, Fiona started to slow down. So, I start to slow down. She looks at her feet, so I look at her feet. Her bright, pink aura quickly drained away, causing the rainbow playground to also drain into a dull, soulless grey.

I called her name.

Pause.

I call her name again and ask if she’s okay.

Another pause.

“I’m moving this summer. I don’t want to go.”

I felt sick.

She starts crying. So I start crying. She’s lost all her color now. Even though her eyes were red and cheeks are rosy from crying, I couldn’t recognize the sparkly pink that glowed all around her. I stand up and hug her. She hugs me tighter, hoping she’d never leave.

Maybe both of us thought that wishing she’d never leave the small island of Okinawa would miraculously work and she wouldn’t go. But in the end, the stupid world decided we would be too powerful growing up together, and sent Fiona far away. We didn’t keep contact, until my senior year of high school. I decided to search her name on Instagram and found her, and, in an instant, she added me back. Although she’s made many new best friends, chosen a few more favorite colors, favorite foods, favorite TV shows, she’s still the cool Fiona I knew from Kindergarten.

Now, both Fiona and I will be graduating high school with real-sized graduation gowns and caps, significantly taller, hair darker, and skin more tan. Although we won’t be able to graduate together like we wished, knowing she and I will be opening a new chapter of our lives at the same time, just across the world, is just as exciting.

Little Kindergarten me couldn’t have asked for a better best friend in the whole wide world, because I started Kindergarten a sunny, golden yellow. And her bright, vivid pink engulfed me, turing me into a beautiful, beaming sunset orange, just like the one we saw together on the last day of school.

And I hope that kids like her- kind-hearted, funny, silly little kids like her, who view moving as dreadful- understand the artistic, magical impact they leave on other kids like me.