Life friends.

I want to introduce you to someone we love. His name is Taylor. And in high school, we were the best of friends.


In high school, Taylor and I were as different as can be. Him: the vintage t-shirt wearing, racquetball- and banjo-playing, Latin scholar. (He'll love that.) Me: the cross country running overachiever who loved art and debating about Christianity - or at least that's what I'm remembering off the top of my head.

But as opposite as we were, for some reason, our friendship just stuck. He was always the first to know about a crush I had, and the first to know when we broke up (I'm sure he loved the sob stories). :) He was the friend who when we said goodbye before college, I cried buckets because I didn't want us to ever not be friends. He was the friend who suffered a tragic loss one summer and I thought my heart would burst out of my chest, just hurting for him. He was the friend who, because we lived in different states during college, was on the "must visit" list whenever I came home to Tennessee during a break.

And when Shawn came into the picture, Shawn was the very first of my boyfriends that Taylor genuinely liked. It was comforting to see that someone who had known me so long and so well agreed that Shawn was pretty perfect for me. And Taylor was that friend who, as an usher at our wedding, stood in the back in the final few moments before my dad walked me down the aisle. He saw me cry a lot of happy tears that day, and I can only imagine the day he gets married, I'll cry lots of happy tears for him too.

Last week, Shawn and I had the privilege of catching up with Taylor over sushi when he was in town from Maryland. It was a bit of a surreal moment, and one I probably wouldn't have believed if you'd told me 10 years ago that we'd be chatting casually over dinner, the three of us.

But it shouldn't have come as a surprise. And it shouldn't even come as a surprise when someday the Newby kids love their Uncle Taylor as much as we do. He's just that kind of friend.