Best friends. Sleepovers. Getting through the tough stuff together. Promising to always be there for each other. These are some of the strongest memories I have from my childhood. I was the girl whose life revolved around her best friends, and that was the way it was always going to be.
When I was in junior high I began reading the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. There were five books in the series, the last of which came out while I was in high school. (I think it was my senior year actually.) These four girls in these books reminded me so much of myself and my own best friends that I felt like I could see our own lives played out through their sorrows and celebrations and we hoped that we would always have a friendship like theirs.
A couple of months ago I was at the bookstore with my granny and I came across a book by the same author, Ann Brashares. I knew that she was still writing. I'd read another book by her, My Name is Memory during the past school year. It was completely disconnected from the Sisterhood books, but it was still very well written and I had loved it. I picked up the book and quickly realized that this book was in-fact a continuation of the Sisterhood series. The book, Sisterhood Everlasting, is what happens "ten years later". A follow-up and unraveling of the lives the girls had been leading since the last novel in which they had finally finished college and were heading out into the world as adults.
I was gripped by this novel right away, excited to delve back into the lives of some of my favorite childhood fiction characters. But the girls were so disconnected from one another as the novel began and I was a bit sad because I recognized the signs of this slow separation in my own life as we all head in our own directions in life. Not far into the novel, tragedy struck. While it was my hope that it would somehow bring them together, it ended up pushing them farther and farther apart. As I followed each of the remaining three girls (I can't say which three) on their own torn journey's to find themselves and the pieces that suddenly seemed to be missing I found my heart hurting for each and every one of them.
It took me a while to get through the first half of the novel since classes were going and I was overwhelmed with a heavy reading load for my classes, but as I lay down before bed the first night of fall break I had planned to read only for half an hour so that I could get some sleep... Three and a half hours later, at 2 o'clock in the morning, I found my self crying into my pillow reading the last pages of the book. So it turns out, it had a better ending than I had expected, and Ms. Brashares wrapped up the girls' stories nicely. I wish with all of my heart that I could continue to follow these girls' lives as they continue to grow and as their family's grow as well. But I'm glad that it has ended this way. I think (though I guess I can't say for sure) that this will be the final installment. With all of the loose ends tied and a pretty (if someone tattered and sad) bow placed on top (figuratively of course) I think that I can happily set aside this book and realize the lessons that I learn not only from this novel in particular, but from all six novels. I can see their lessons played out in my life and I hope that I can carry them with me in the years to come as I continue on my own journey through life with my own best friends who have always been there for...no matter what.
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