14. Grown up friends

I have 'adopted' many older brothers and sisters in life, but Jenn is probably the first, seeing as she has known me since birth. I'm not even sure how much older than me she is, but I was a young teenager when she left for college, and after that, we only saw each other on random weekends when we both happened to be at church. So though she knew me since birth, but did I really know her at all? I have a few key memories of her as a spiritual sister and teacher, particularly one morning when we sat together on her bed reading a Psalms. She asked what I thought about it, what verse I liked, and why. I think that was the first time someone made interacting with scripture so simple and normal. But other than that, she was Jenn Jenn jie jie: pretty, smart, and fun. She was always a role model, but I don't think I could have pinpointed specifics as to why. 

Jenn just moved to Sacramento, which puts us closer geographically than we have been in my twenty-four years of life. Of course, we had to catch up. After 2.5 hours (the last half in which we didn't eat a single bite),  it feels like I just rediscovered a friend. A friend who knows my family, who was genuinely concerned about the effect of our parents' leaving the Adventist church on my and my siblings' faiths, who has made grown up decisions about following Jesus, and who is also adjusting to being a minority as an Asian for kinda-ish the first time. 

While it still feels like a decade's worth of catching up to do, I think an old friend can make you smile in special ways. Like how Jenn and her sister Christine noticed how Anthony and I had authority of our Vacation Bible School classrooms, though we must have been only thirteen or fourteen that very first year. Or how Jenn clearly remembers telling Christine that I was organized, and if she put me in charge of crafts for all classes for the whole week, I would get it done. How she could tell I'd handle this I have no idea! Still, I remember neatly on sheets of lined paper, breaking down the total supplies to purchase and what pages to find the specific crafts instructions. Then of course there are the stories and stories they can tell about our little trio of Do-Re-Mi siblings, then eventually of Alan. 

With all of these, I always knew she loved me as a younger sister, and I adored and looked up to her as an older sister. But tonight I feel like we are friends again, and though she still sees the chubby (my description) five-year-old in my face, something in me feels like catching up with her and telling her about who I am, what I do, what I think makes me feel like I've grown up a lot. 

(P.S. Jenn, do you still read this blog??)