The truth is, Kenna is the type of friend you want to have exactly because of the statement above. She loves you so much that she refuses to let you stay as you are if she knows you can do better for yourself and others. I believe Kenna wants to see people flourish, and this is where she finds part of her own fulfillment. When you have something great, you want to share that greatness with others. I see this is in Kenna, every time we broach a subject of development and growth.

Despite my perceived differences between the two of us, Kenna and I are more similar in this vein than I realized. Having both come from big families, we both agree that sometimes your closest friends are your family. However, our reasons for this belief are distinct: Kenna moved around due to her military father while my family never moved but was isolated in our own rural paradise that prevented the typical suburban relationships. I think I speak for both of us when I say we wouldn’t change this. Our friendships and bonds with our own family members are foundational in our current and past experiences.

It seems that what lies at the heart of friendship, after all, is who you can be yourself around. For me, that is my family. I never laugh more than when I’m at home. For Kenna and I, our foundations in our friendships with family trickle into our other friendships. The way we act around our families is how we would ideally like to act around those who we consider to be friends. In families, you often have to acknowledge the shortcomings and mistakes of others, especially when you live in close quarters. I find it much easier to correct the behavior of my older brother than my close friends. Those of us who come from big families may be prone to doing this with our friends, because we love them and want what’s best for them. I believe this is what Kenna brings toward her other friendships.

And this is what makes Kenna’s friendship special. In a culture of allowing everyone to be themselves, we often take that to the extreme, allowing the flaws and vices of individuals to fester until we reach a breaking point. If we acknowledged the true wrongs of some people, instead of to-each-their-own, we’d communicate better in our own relationships and within greater society. I admire Kenna, for more things than I can list here, but most of all because I have never seen her back down from the truth. If everyone had a friend like Kenna, we’d all be a little nicer, hold our heads a little higher, and laugh a little louder.

A little-known secret known only by the seasoned readers of FYATM is that the theme of the article almost always aligns with the writer’s personal life. I’ve written about love in the midst of a break-up and declared a major after interviewing a former writer, among other things. This is one of the many beauties of being one of the select writers on this staff; the article will always cause you to reflect on something that needs reflecting upon during that season of your life. I’m glad I’ve had the chance to grow up before the eyes of the readers in the Emmitsburg area. Because I have been allowed to be myself within these pages, perhaps you and I are friends, as well.

For both Kenna and I, we reflected on friendships this month with the change in the near horizon. I will be graduating in May, leaving the Mount a year earlier than those who I entered with. I’ll return to Richmond, lacking the convenience of having friends right down the hall. To say I am worried about my friendships is an understatement. Kenna is facing a similar struggle: she, too, is graduating a year early, and her friends are split between the 2022 and 2024 classes, even though she will leave in 2023. A season of change is upon the both of us as we worry about the future of our friendships, whether they will adapt to the shifts in the not-too-distant future. One thing I am not worried about, however, is our friendship together. Despite having known each other for only a fraction of our lives, Kenna has shaped me in many ways, constantly causing me to reflect on the world around me. I am happy to say that her fearless femininity, deep theological curiosity, and unabated love for the human person has rubbed off on me—my posture is a lot better, too. There will come a time where I can no longer walk dorm halls with her on RA duty, where our coffee dates become sparse to nonexistent. Yet, I do not doubt that our friendship can weather the tides, as our commonalities and the memories we’ve shared will not disappear overnight. And we have one unique similarity that sets us apart, cementing our friendship into one hard to replicate: we will both graduate college before we can legally drink.

Readers, I have enjoyed our friendship over the past three years, for you allowing me to be myself within these pages. I only hope that you have the chance to learn as much from Kenna as I have.