Amber, I wrote this essay for my creative writing class. I hope you like it. :)
Amber and I
When my parents divorced they each moved me back to their hometown. My father’s hometown was in Hamburg, Wisconsin. My father came from an abnormally large family, many of whom purchased land from my grandfather to create their own establishment. I lived in the upstairs of their grand old farmhouse and my cousin Amber lived across the highway from us. The farmhouse or as we simply called it the Farm, was an interesting place. It had its glory at one point but it didn’t live up to those standards for long. The pond was always mucky and was overpopulated with frogs; the barn was full of rats and everyone’s things that were no longer wanted. One of my uncles even kept a mailbox collection in there. The chickens crapped all over; one of my aunts lived in a little shack next to the barn and we swore it was haunted. This place had a living storybook of adventure.
Homemade lipstick
Roses
Amber and I spent the most time together. Out of the 26 cousins we had, we bonded the closest. We didn’t have all the fancy games or the money to do things other young children did for entertainment. We just had the Farm. A memory that sticks out the most was making lots of lipstick. We had an obsession. The ingredients included sand, rose petals, and mucky pond water, which we forced one of our older cousins to fetch for us. We tried to use up our purchased chap sticks so that we would have containers for the good stuff -the homemade stuff. Yes, we did use these chap sticks and were quite proud of it. My grandmothers rose bush provided other entertainment for us as well. When mixing rose petals with water, we convinced ourselves that it had healing powers. After we got done rolling down the septic hill for no good reason, hitting rocks and thistles, we used the healing potion to make us magically better.
Concocting perfumes
Making meals for family
Pottery
We grew up. We realized we were kind of idiots, almost embarrassed to bring up memories such as these to our elementary school friends. We had better more grown up ideas. Almost every time we got together we concocted pretty smelling perfumes by mixing previously existing ones together. We tried to show off our cooking skills. When Amber’s parents came back from working outside, we prepared them a meal. Leftover vegetables, and applesauce were compliments of our main dish, Peanut Butter and Jelly mixed with salt. We didn’t make just one sandwich, we ended up making eight! My aunt and Uncle were not too pleased when they found out we wasted a lot of food. Money was tight then and our wastefulness was not appreciated. To teach us a lesson they made us eat every single sandwich until they were gone. Other summer days we dug in my woods for clay. We each believed that we were pottery makers. Grains, dandelions, gravel, and weeds, would all get mixed into our masterpieces. We set them out to dry in bricks but always forgot about them a few weeks later. It never worked.
Hayden
Making our own band
Planning our wedding songs- maid of honor
The preteen years were the best because we had a band! Our Band was called Hayden. We thought we were cool and changed our names. My new name was Laura Hayden and Amber’s was Jamie Hayden. We asked for microphones for Christmas and put on concerts for invisible people in her house. We wrote our own songs, twelve of them to be exact. It was one of the longest phases we have ever been in. We simply had a blast! My best Halloween was spent with her. At the end of her long driveway was a playhouse that we decorated to appear haunted. Soon after, we dressed up. She covered her curly dark brown hair with a black wig that had red tips. She wore a lip ring, a tattooed sleeve and lots of black eye shadow. It was really convincing. I tried to dye my hair orange but my dark stubborn hair wouldn’t change colors. I had an eyebrow ring and a tattooed sleeve as well. My lips were black and so were my eyes. I don’t think we dressed up to be a specific character but rather we just tried to be scary. Eating candy, having a band rehearsal, gossiping and handing out a very little bit of candy outlined the whole haunted night. Coming in touch with our feminine side, other days we discussed every detail about our future weddings. We had songs planned and husband’s names picked. We worried about how our husbands would meet our fathers. It was so silly looking back. She was always going to be my maid of honor. That’s one detail I hope stays the same.
College
Friends
Amber went off to college in the fall of 2010. The summer prior to her leaving was very memorable. Days spent shopping, listening to music, and chatting were among our favorite activities. We did some traveling; one trip was to Chicago to see our favorite singer Bon Jovi. The concert was amazing!!! Back at home we spent a lot of time discussing college life. She was headed off to La Crosse Tech and I was hoping to be accepted into St. Norbert’s. We talked about boys; who was cute, who was not, the famous people who were incredible gorgeous and often we talked about my boyfriend. We would sit around eating desserts that Amber baked, discussing friends and how bitchy they usually were. We had each other’s back. With the wonderful ability of texting, I get to hear from her nearly every week. I look forward to her frequent arrivals back in Hamburg, Wisconsin. She is my best friend and I often miss her.
Conclusion: Family makes the best of friends
My dad always tells me that the best friends are family. I usually roll my eyes at his remarks. I really want to expand my horizons beyond my family but in all honesty he has a point. My best friend is my cousin. From when we were toddlers making lipstick out of sand, to making salty sandwiches, and later creating a band, we have really had the best of times. I know more great times will come as well. I can picture us actually get married, moving into our own houses, having children, growing old, and drinking wine on our porches. We have the bond unlike one I’ve ever had with any other friend. For as long as she lives, she will forever being my wing girl. For once I can say my father was right. The best friends are going to be your family.
By: Taylor Seliger
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