Most people keep pictures of their best friends on their walls, as their phone’s lock screen, hanging up at their desk at work, or some other place to remind them of someone they cherish. Me, well, I keep my best friend even closer: Sophia’s handwriting is permanently inked on my body for the rest of my life. Our friendship and her unwavering belief in me are as permanent as the ink on my skin. I have been blessed with a number of meaningful friendships throughout my life that have made me a better person in some way or another, but no one has impacted me as deeply as Sophia. I met her in the fifth grade when I started at a new school and was terrified to let anyone get to know me. We weren’t immediate friends, but we became attached at the hip somewhere between play rehearsals and school summer camps. Even as young, slightly untethered preteens, Sophia always had a way of reminding me to be where my feet were planted instead of where my head was racing. I experienced a very difficult childhood with the passing of my mother just a few days before I started kindergarten. My dad is one of my best friends, but we used to argue like there was no tomorrow. As I get older, I recognize that we were both just angry at what had been taken from us: my mom. It seems clear now, but it was a knot of messy emotions I never felt capable to untangle until I became friends with Sophia. She is kind in a way I had never experienced before, and she taught me how to be kind to myself, even when I was feeling riled up. My grief and my anxiety usually manifested as anger. I was quick to bark and quick to bite, not only at others but at myself, as well. She never said it out loud, but she slowly taught me that my anger wasn’t going to help me feel better, only worse. When I got agitated, she saw through the emotional façade I had put up and reacted with patience instead of frustration. Sophia was the first person in my life to tell me that I was “nice.” No one had ever said that to me before, and it changed me. If Sophia, the personification of kindness, thought I was ‘nice’, then I certainly could be. Sophia has done more than just deal with me as a raucous child. She has seen me at some of the hardest moments in my life and some of my biggest joys, and she has cheered for me loudly through all of them. Her ability to show kindness and unknowable empathy towards me and others when they are at their lows, when they have made mistakes, and when they have been depleted is what showed me my true potential. From her, I learned how to be kind. She is constantly reminding me to take breaks, to slow down, and to give the world grace when I am feeling upset. My full potential was never going to be met if I was harboring such resentment towards myself and my experiences as intensely as I used to. I truly believe that little Sophia saw my goodness under many layers of poorly positioned 'strength'. She still sees this goodness to this day, and it has made me a better daughter, friend, student, artist, lover, and human. Because of Sophia, I know kindness. In myself, in others, and in the world.