good friends are not hard to come by

My team won the regional academic triathlon meet in sixth grade. We qualified for state. I skipped the state meet to go to the temple. Temple trips were twice a year.

We stayed up late Saturday night planning the finishing touches on our thirty minute one act play we wrote and performed on the Berlin Wall, senior year. They met Sunday to practice again. I stayed home to keep the sabbath holy.

Our jazz choir performed in New York City at a jazz festival. They won the competition. I stayed home--the festival fell on a Sunday.

My best friend's birthday was general conference weekend every year. Every year I only made it to half her party. They went horse back riding once. They moved their reservation to the break between sessions for me.

Think of all the sacrifices my childhood friends made, so I could live the way I hoped to.

I've never really thought of it that way.

Here's to good kids, like the friends I had, who understood that religion was important to me.