Michiko Shinohara was my friend in the third grade.

We traded stickers every day during lunch and she taught me how to do Origami. She was a wiz at folding paper and I was always amazed by the things she could create. She even made a balloon once. Folded a square piece of paper for a few minutes, put it up to her mouth, inflated it and handed it to me. Genius!

I was fascinated by her culture, she brought sushi and vegetables to school for lunch every day in a round lunchbox, she had the best puffy Hello Kitty stickers ever and she always wore the most beautiful silk shirts for picture day.

She is one of the most interesting friends I have ever had and over 25 years later my children even know about Michiko. I left my grammar school and moved away from New York. I never saw her again, and while our relationship was so simple and quite brief in life terms she is part of the colorful fabric of my life. She is a silk thread. I was thinking about her today and these are my thoughts from the laundry room.

おやすみなさい (Good night!)

female friendship thoughts culture friendship school thoughts