You know all those horror stories you hear about the high school experience? Malicious gossip, thuggish bullies, backstabbing frenemies etc etc. Well I must have been one of the lucky ones because the enduring memories I have of my High School experience is that of the wonderful friends I made. Wonderful ladies whose friendship I was lucky enough to earn and who have since become like sisters to me.

And one of those friends, turns 23 today!

I usually can’t remember the beginning of the friendships I’ve made over the years. Can’t remember the precise moment we met and started developing that relationship. But with Val, I remember and I remember it CLEARLY. Probably because there I was, a scared little freshmen when all of a sudden this strange and excited girl jumps right in front of me and exclaims something along the lines of, “I KNOW YOU!!” And proceeds to talk about how I was Hannah, the Asian cheerleader from Orange Grove Middle School. Oh yeah, she freaked me out at first.

But Val has this magic quality about her that oozes warmth and friendliness. She may be super hyper at times, but she makes you feel at home. There are times when we go out and meet new people and I’m so glad to have Val by my side because I swear, the girl can make friends and carry a conversation with perfect strangers with perfect ease.

Last week while I was in LA, we treated Val out to an early birthday dinner and while on the way home I mentioned how much I love her chocolate chip-less chocolate chip cookies and what does she do? She proceeds to go home, grab all her baking equipment and ingredients, brings it all over to my house and bakes me the most delicious cookies right then and there. That’s the kind of wonderfully giving person she is and I love her for it.

This isn’t a recent photo, but I love it anyway because I think it perfectly captures Val’s open and warm personality.

Happy Birthday Val! Let’s keep on growing old together.