As you can tell, I am an avid selfie-taker.

My very first friend at the school I now attend is, was, and forever will be a short, adorable little Indian girl named Mallika. The first time we met, I mispronounced her name; that will remain a stain on my conscience until the end of time. She assigned to be my “buddy” (every new student has one remaining student that is essentially obligated to be their best friend for the first two weeks of sixth grade), so for our first outing together we watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds’ End. It made no sense and terrified me because a. I’d never seen any of the previous movies and b. because I don’t like action movies, which is why I hadn’t seen the previous ones.

In 8th grade, we came up with this strange inside joke where everytime we saw each other, we’d spring at the other and scream something, like “Huggie!” or “Huggle buddy!” I think we arbitrarily ranked ourselves the best huggers that ever lived. I also joined debate in 8th grade, while she had been participating since 7th grade. We were much different then. Continue reading →