She was one of the very first people I met First Year at UVa, and we
lived across the hall from each other. She was the first person I met who had ever lived in Italy and also the first I knew
who'd ever played field hockey (of course, I thought that the picture she had of her high school team was of her cheerleading
squad, not being familiar with other girls' sports that required skirts!). We went to our first fraternity rush date party
together, dates of boys I knew from high school. We became great friends and were roommates our Second Year. It always made
her smile when any of our friends would rhyme things with her middle name, Jean. She came to the beach with me, and home to
Atlanta for my deb party. Blonde, smart, funny, good huggers . . . we've always had a lot in common. Somehow, though,
until last weekend, we'd lost touch over the past five years.
Then I got an email and it made my day! In the past few days, we've started
to catch up. I now know that she's engaged to a man named Matt, and I hope he's as wonderful as she deserves him to be (I
think he probably is!). That she's a seventh year associate at the same Manhattan firm where she began practicing law; I'm
so proud of her, and I can remember her undergrad studying habits very well and that makes me smile. It was great to hear
that her sister now has two little girls and to find out what her parents are up to, and I was proud when she told me how
much she enjoyed reading Carrie Neal Land.
There is something really special about the people who knew-you-when.
And my dear friend Melissa, not quite a stranger anymore, is one of them. I'm glad we've reconnected, and plan on keeping
it that way.
Merry Christmas, friend.
