Salt & Pepper.

When I was little, all I wanted to be in life was a mom. I played tirelessly every single day with my baby dolls, "practicing" for the day that I had my own real baby. I looked forward to pushing my real baby in a stroller, and taking my real children to see their grandparents.

To this day, I still I want so badly to celebrate Mother's Day, and coach a little league soccer team, and take my children on vacations to the same places my parents had taken me and my brother. I want to be a mommy. I desire that, and I hope the Lord grants my future husband and I the joys of having children some day.

This past Sunday, in between church and Sunday school, I found out my best friend had been in a car accident. Panic raced through my entire body. Terrible thoughts entered my mind.

Now what you don't realize is that my best friend and I have both had ridiculous years. We have both been the saddest we have ever been, and the happiest. We have cried, laughed, sang, and screamed-- together. When we both faced trials and had to climb mountains neither of us ever expected, we forged the paths together. Throughout this entire year, I never once felt alone. I knew my best friend was going to stand right beside me no matter what, and would be on “Team Taylor,” even when she was the only team member. I knew I could talk to her about anything, and her advice would always point me straight back to God's Word.

We have literally “lived life” together. Keyword is "We." We start off each morning with a text message discussing what each day holds for the other, and how much we don’t want to go to class. We watch Pretty Little Liars faithfully each Monday together, even though it scares us half to death. We do hundreds upon hundreds of math problems laying on my floor for Structural Concepts of Math. In the summer, I lay on her couch crying my eyes out because of a boy and she listened. In the fall, she lay on my couch crying her eyes out because of a boy and I listened. We carpool to class to save gas, time, and to give us more chat time. We have vague conversations that we both understand completely. We laugh at inside jokes, plan our future weddings, and pin on Pinterest like the best of 'em. We get coffee when class ends early, and we get Coke's when we decide to skip class. We listen to Mars Hill sermons by Marc Driscoll and David Platt's sermons from Brook Hills. We passed Math Concepts together—Math Concepts, people. We’re best friends. There isn't a doubt in my mind that I couldn't have made it through the past year of craziness without her and Sonic Vanilla Cokes.

I was scared. I didn’t want to lose my best friend.

I couldn’t lose my best friend...

Terrified, I called her mom. She answered and assured me that Madison would be okay and not to worry. After a day in the ER, Madison checked out just fine. The air bag had deployed, so her neck was stiff and sore. She had a cut on her foot, and a nice cut on her head. They told her she’d be bruised and bumped for a while, but could continue on with life.

Before all of this happened, Madison was moving into her new apartment. Since the electricity and water wouldn’t be turned on until Tuesday, I had offered for her to stay at my house. It would’ve been a fun “end of the year” sleepover. Madison was still going to stay at my house, but because of the wreck, it was because she needed me to take care of her. When she arrived, we got a very sore Madison all settled in to her new room for the night, and then it was time for bed.

Homegirl fell asleep quick. I, on the other hand, could not. The terrible thoughts that had entered my mind earlier that morning crept slowly back into my head. What if the doctors didn’t catch something? What if Madison had something seriously wrong and caused something horrid to happen in her sleep? My biggest fear was what if my best friend did not wake up the next morning? I made myself sick dwelling on these miserable ideas of losing my best friend and how my life would be without her.

Let me tell you, it was the longest night of my life. (This is the part where I tie in being a mom.) When parents bring their newborn babies home from the hospital, they are terrified to leave their precious child alone. They go in to the room at night just to make sure the tiny baby is still breathing. They lay awake at night, just making sure they don’t miss out on a single cry so they can tend to it quickly.

That was me. I was a "mom" for the evening.

Not in the way I had ever expected it to be. I mean, Madison is a 20 year old. By no means is she a newborn baby, but she did need me. She needed me to bring her Tylenol and some water to take it with. She needed me to bring her bags in from the car. She needed to borrow my hairdryer, my guest bed, and my shampoo. She needed me to make sure she was okay.

Finally morning came and I went in to check on Madison, and she rolled over and glared at me, ticked off that I had woken her up before I left for my 8 o’clock class. All of the fears that had kept me up all night long suddenly disappeared. They no longer mattered. Madison was okay. She had woken up, and was ready to begin Monday. All of this goes to say that I love my best friend. I take my friendship with her for granted so often. Never even considering that our friendship could end so quickly. My outlook definitely changed over night. While eating our Happy Meals at lunch today on my front porch, we discussed the emotional roller coaster ride of life we had both rode in the past year. We talked about the ups we had and the downs. We have come full circle in a year's time, and we are grateful for one another. It's a great feeling to know that someone is always on your team cheering for just you. They want you to succeed, and understand when you don't feel like it. They get you. They complete you, and keep you sane.

Today in class a kid asked me where Madison was, so I told him she had a wreck and wouldn't be there today. He said " Oh! That's too bad. I knew something must have been wrong… You usually don't see one without the other. You two are like Salt and Pepper."

I laughed, of course, but it's very true. We are always together, whether that be in class, or out to lunch. You learn in any etiquette class that Salt is never passed without Pepper. They are always a pair, never to be separated for any reason. They each bring something different to the table, yet they are the perfect  She is my Pepper, and I don't want to go through life without her.