Everyone, meet my common-law sister Hillary! We have been best friends since we met in first grade. As kids, we lived entirely in our imaginations, defeating snake kings in my basement (there was a whole ordeal where Hill got stuck in between the stairs) and playing Panthers and Unicorns on the playground (yes, I was always the one who got to get kidnapped or killed! Very theatrical!). We read Anne of Green Gables and imagined ourselves as the heroines (kindred spirits!). In middle school, Hill moved from Michigan to Pennsylvania for a couple years. When she came back, we picked right up where we left off. We spent hours in her room trying to decipher the meaning of song lyrics and were determined to get on to Oprah to get makeovers. I served as a subject for her explorations of photography; her dad even built a dark room in the basement. Ever the athlete, Hillary used to make me go running with her. Just go to the next corner, she'd say. Just go to that stop sign, she'd say. Next thing you'd know, we'd have run six miles! We had some rocky times before I got over a puritanical streak. But, luckily, she was patient and forgiving and waited for me to catch up and get a clue. She went away to college at the University of Miami (in Florida) and then got her master's at George Washington (in D.C.), always ensuring I had somewhere warm or interesting visit. A few years ago, we took the trip of a lifetime to visit her friend Julie in Singapore. We also made an overnight stop in Japan and went to Thailand. Hill now lives in Clearwater, Fla., with her magical boyfriend Chip and works as a forensic chemist for Pinellas County. She has continued to play soccer on club teams and recently had to undergo knee surgery, from which she is still recovering. She is passionate, driven, opinionated, smart as a whip, loyal, forgiving, goofy, creative, expressive and dark. She loves a good glass of wine, plays the guitar and can tell a story like nobody's business!
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