Let’s face it, there is a good chance that the last professional picture you took with your best friends looked like this:

Or like this:

Or maybe, like me, you lucked out with a wedding photographer who caught an amazing photo like this:

I love this picture, I really do.  And I love the girls we were in it, the ones so sure of their futures and relationships and careers. The ones who were marrying their best friends and buying their first homes and diving into the professions they had spent years preparing for. The girls who just knew that everything in their lives was going to be amazing.

In the 10 years that have passed, the girls in that photo have grown into women. Women who have seen marriages falter and fail, who have mourned the loss of parents, embryos and unborn babies.  Women who have experienced the disappointment of false friends, and career paths that didn’t work out, and occasionally a whole life that looks nothing like we had planned.

We’ve experienced great joy too, in becoming mothers and wives, in continuing educations and walking away from careers that no longer suited us.  Watched amazing parents become amazing grandparents and wonderful husbands steal our hearts all over again as they became wonderful fathers.  We’ve found incredible wonder in the all of the wrong turns that took us to the exact right places.

And in that time, the years and miles and different lifestyles that should have driven us apart have only served to remind us of the shared history that brought us together.  Our friendships have deepened, are fiercely loyal, protective and supportive.  So I’m calling for a return of the buddy photo, because as much as I love the girls we were, I love the women we’ve become even more.  And it’s time we pull out our favorite coordinating outfits, grab some wine, and honor that shit.

Huge thank you to the Emmetsburg high school graduates for sharing the incredible blast from the past buddy pictures!

Kelly Bay is a business owner, wife, mom, writer, and general all around boss lady.  She  has never actually punched anyone in the face.  Read more of her thoughts on parenting, raising strong girls, mindfulness and finding joy in a chaotic life at www.beerandjunk.com.