All The Single Ladies Blog Party ~ Day Seven

Hey Soul Sister

     I have four sisters and I'm right in the middle of them, as well as in the middle of four boys and the middle of nine children. So basically, this is how my family goes:  

Girl, Girl, Boy, Boy, Girl (me), Boy, Boy, Girl, Girl

     Crazy? Pretty much. Everyone in my family has always had their own little buddy system going on since they came into the world. I'm seven years younger than the sister before me and seven years older than the sister after me, even crazier sometimes. I'm close to my sisters, but we have never been like really super tight with one another. We all definitely need our personal space!

     As I've said before, I don't really have a lot of friends. Friends came in and out of my life like the changing seasons. We would have great times together and then they would always go off and find someone else; it would hurt sometimes, but I got use to it. That's probably why I'm such a private person, because I've never really had anyone to share my personal feelings to.

     Even though I enjoyed my teenage years, high school was very difficult for me. I was homeschooled and so I had little to no social interaction outside of my own household. All the interaction I got was at my church. Between the ages of about 13 to 15 was my hardest time, because I was just entering into high school and therefore I would be attending youth group. My church youth group wasn't bad, but it wasn't easy to break into either, because almost every teenager in the church went to the same Christian school. Oh yeah, this was also when the minority of homeschooling was at 1% and me being that part of that one. So, I was literally the only homeschooled kid in youth group whereas all the other kids knew each other from school.

    It really was a difficult time for me, but then we went to another church and it got slightly better. Notice, I used the word slightly. By that time I accepted the fact that I probably never have a real best friend. Then I saw "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" in December 2004 and everything changed for me.

     In 2006, I was watching TLLW on DVD when I had the idea to write a fan-fiction about Edmund. It was as simple as that. So I sat down at the computer and I began to write. I wanted other people to read it, so in November, I got a Xanga account (by that time Facebook was just becoming popular) and started to post my story there.

     At the time I was taking an art class for homeschoolers and it was one of the most enjoyable classes I have ever had. I had so much fun there! (sorry I'm a little reminiscent). Anyway, we had started talking about writing and I had mentioned that I was writing a Narnia fan-fiction. One of the girls there (who bore a striking resemblance to Anna Popplewell) was curious about them and so I gave her the link to my site.

       On Monday, February 26, 2007 I received this in my comment feed:

     

Hi! Sarah Hartung told me about your xanga...she said we have a lot in common and I would agree from reading your profile. By the way, I know Sarah because she is my cousin's cousin, if that makes any sense. Anyway you can ask her exactly how we know each other. God Bless!

Posted 2/26/2007 9:56 PM by Whereforeartthouromeo 

     That was posted by Celeste White who was a fourteen year old from Lothian, Maryland. I replied back to her comment and I was never the same again. In less than a couple of weeks it will be six years since I read that comment. Six years that Celeste and I have been friends. Here's the twist, she and I have never met face to face, not once. Over the years we have tried to meet, but it never worked out. As a matter of fact when we first met online, I wasn't holding out much hope, but then we started to write letters and then talk on the phone. Our relationship just grew and grew.

     Celeste and I are very similar and we are also very different. I like to say that we are different enough to find each other interesting, but similar enough to understand one another. I'm a Protestant and she's a Catholic. She is surrounded by her extended family and I only have my immediate family. She's a dancer and I'm a writer. Where I can be melancholy and a introvert, she is very outgoing. Oh yeah, and we tend to have very different taste in men too.

Examples:

I say Sherlock, she says Watson (Sherlock BBC series)

I say Capt. Kirk, she says Dr. McCoy (Star Trek 2009)

I say King Caspian, she says King Edmund (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader 2011)

     And somehow she believes that her choices are so superior to mine. The only two men she and I have ever agreed on are Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. Which is all right with me.

     Celeste has been a constant and unwavering support in my life. She came to me in a time where I desperately needed someone to rely on, to talk to, and to just generally care. When I talk to Celeste, I have complete faith in the fact that she is generally interested in me and my life (which has always been a rarity with me) and I don't have to feign interest to know about her.

     Both of us are huge "Anne of Green Gables" lovers and so we often like to say that we are kindred spirits and I honestly believe that to be true.