I got some simultaneously good and bad news. Amy is leaving in two weeks to go live with her biological mother. It's awesome because she'll get to go to be with her real mom, whom she told me last night is like her best friend. It's bad news because her mother lives several hours away and I won't be able to mentor her anymore. (Or, at least not in the same capacity.) She's excited about the move, but she confided that she's scared about leaving her best friends who live here. Her very best friend knows things that no one else knows, not even Amy's mom. I told her that with internet and cell phones, it's not so hard to keep in touch with people nowadays. I told her how me and my best friend haven't seen each other in MONTHS, but we still stay close. She just kept saying, "I know - it's not like it's forever..." Then we started talking about the friends we had lost "forever." That poor girl has seen (literally) more tragedy than any seventeen year old should have to see. She spoke very candidly of the death she's seen and how it scares her, and still sort of haunts her sometimes... Poor girl!
But, even though our conversation went down a dark road, we did have a really fun night! We got ice cream and cookies and had a movie night. Then we walked around town and sat on the swing at the park... A really nice night. We had lots of good laughs. It just figures that now that we're really comfortable with each other, she has to leave. But, we're still going to keep in touch after she leaves, and I'm going to promise her that I'll be here for her, if only to have some objective ear to listen.
I'm going to really enjoy our last few days together. Hopefully she'll enjoy herself, too, and it'll be a good thing for both of us.
