Friend #34 - Kathrine

My first grade best friend

Kathrine and her husband, Seth, on a recent trip to Paris.

Kathrine and I met in the first grade. I always remember her being a gentle soul—artistic but practical. Silly and kind. 

I’ll confess that in the years that followed we were never as close as we were in the first grade but she remained someone who felt like a friend. 

Years later in eleventh-grade English, Kathrine shared in secret that she was speaking to a boy she had met on a trip to New York named Seth. They were first introduced through a family friend. 

Kathrine and I chat over Zoom. It has been almost ten years since the day Kathrine and Seth first began their romance and eight years since we chatted as friends. They now live in New Jersey and are expecting their first baby. 

“We did five and a half years of long distance,” says Kathrine. 

Kathrine studied dental hygiene in Toronto and Seth went to school in Connecticut. 

“He would drive nine hours from Connecticut once a month to see me,” says Kathrine. 

The couple worked toward the end goal of being together. Their shared Christian faith guided them. 

“We have a similar mindset when it comes to big things but I’m far more silly,” says Kathrine. “Seth is quiet and only speaks when he has something impactful to say.” 

She explains that the area they live in is similar to the suburb outside Toronto where we are from but with far more people and New York City a 20-minute car ride away in trafficless conditions. 

As children, I remember Kathrine being close with her family and despite the physical distance, her mom is still one of her best friends. “We drive up to Toronto once every four to six weeks,” she says. 

In New Jersey, Kathrine has noticed that there is less distinction among her friend groups. “At home, I had my coworkers, my family, my church group. Here, my family and church group are one bubble,” she says referring to her current circle. 

I’ve noticed that in North America, particularly, we’re less likely to mix our work friends with our gym friends. Or our high school friends with our university friends. A weird social practice that in many ways makes it more difficult to meet new people. 

For my 25th birthday, I invited everyone I knew. I put them all in my backyard and the party was a success. I think we are all independent enough to determine who we’d like to talk to and most of the time, a friend to you is a friend to me. 

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“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

―Isaiah 66:13⁣

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