Little Girl, Big Heart
To me, friendship is embodied by my 4 year old half sister, Mila. Although she is so little, she treats everyone as if they are her best friend. When you walk into my father’s house, the first thing you hear is squealing and little footsteps coming around the corner. Every person that walks into the house is met with her smiling face running towards you, with her arms wide open. Without fail, she greets you with a hug and kiss, no matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you have met once, or millions of times, she acts the same. She is radiant with joy at all times, and it comes from being around people. Despite all the millions of thoughts that must be running through her head as she begins to discover the world for herself, she is constantly talking about the people she knows. If you ask her who her best friend is, the list goes on and on, and the people could range from her friend at school to my father’s work friend who came to our house once. Every person she meets, she will be mentioning them for the next week, exclaiming how she misses them and how happy she makes them.
Her attitude and positivity reminds me of the mantra, “love all, serve all.” Mila does not discriminate with whom she loves and how much she loves them. She meets everyone with the same kind of respect. It is so touching to be in her presence, because she has no prejudices or worries about anyone. Although most of us struggle to be this open hearted due to past experiences, the way she lives her life reminds me it is possible to just love everyone, no matter your differences.
Sometimes loving so candidly can be a challenge, when pain and hurt is introduced into your life. As you grow, you learn about how loyalty translates into being a good friend, although it can mean loving people more than others. At Andover, I feel as though I have found my home, for I have friends who are so loyal to me and each other. We feel as strongly as Mila feels about everyone, about just each other and it creates such a strong bond between us. When any of us go through pain bought upon by someone else, we are by each other’s sides through it all, and we see how this pain affects our friend, and when you see someone you love hurting, it's so hard not to hate everyone and everything that ever made them have to feel this.
--Lucy