Stephanie

Stephanie Lynne Strockis will change the world someday; because she has already changed mine. To begin to describe Stephanie I would use words like; independent, strong-minded, and caring. There is definitely no one else quite like my best friend.
I met Stephanie my first couple days of life and from that moment on we were bonded as best friends. She is almost a year older than me, but despite that, we have remained best friends our whole lives. She and I could not be closer if we were related, that is why both our lives changed dramatically when she turned three.
Just after her third birthday, Stephanie developed linear scleroderma, an arthritis causing the right side of her body to become noticeably smaller than her left. Although I was not the one who developed arthritis, I was affected by it too. I had to grow up a great deal. I had to be strong for her when she was weak, and I had to watch over her when we played and when she went in for her regular physical therapy appointments.
I would accompany Stephanie to her appointments because our mom’s had given up on trying to tear us apart for even an hour. Every time she went to her appointments she would cry in pain from her exercises. My best friend would be in pain and I had to hold back my tears to comfort her. I am her rock, and she is mine.
Every one of my childhood memories involves Stephanie. Everyday was a new adventure. Her imagination took me to places no one could even conceive, one day we would be slaying vampires from the haunted house down the street and the next we would be detectives solving the murder of the man next door. All that would change the day my mom sat us down and told us I was moving.
I honestly thought my life was over. I was leaving the house I grew up in, I was leaving my popular status at school, but most importantly I was leaving Stephanie. My rock was being ripped away from me. I felt as if my whole world had been flipped upside down and I was alone in flipping it right side up again.
That was just the beginning. Starting high school without my best friend there to get me though the day would end up being too much for me to handle. I fell into a deep depression and I did not see the light at the end of the tunnel of despair. I wrote to Stephanie explaining how I was on the verge of self destruction and the next thing I knew my rock was knocking on my front door. She had somehow convinced her mom to drive her two hours to my house just to see me for that day. By the end of the day I was in a completely new mind set, I was ready to kick butt and take names.
If it was not for her comforting words I would have fallen apart and I do not think I would have been able to put myself together again. She pushed me to make new friends, join a sport, and do something positive. By putting myself out there I joined a soccer team and now because of her I am a rocking soccer star with a team full of friends. None of this would have been possible without her and her words of wisdom, strong mindedness, and caring personality. Thanks Stephanie.