“Ohana means family, family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten,” says Stich. For my whole life it has been really hard for me to connect emotionally with anyone, including with my family. As I’ve grown older,unfortunately, I’ve learned to identify people who don’t deserve my respect and trust. I’ve always had trust issues and it seems as if the moment I found someone I could trust and had much respect and love for she had to leave me to better her future. 

When I was younger my cousins and I would always pick on each other, but since I was the youngest of the bunch I was picked on the most. My two cousins, Kurstin and Dylan, and I always hung out at my Grannies. I remember one time when me, Kurstin and her friend, Rika, were at my granny’s and they were pretending to lock me in the bathroom. I was about ten years old and I didn’t really think it through because the door didn’t even have a lock. Another thing that I didn’t think through is that it’s not possible to lock someone inside the bathroom from the outside. One final memory that I have is when I was about seven years old. I used to have a life sized Woody doll and that doll would be attached to my hip 24/7. One day me and her were in the basement playing and I told her that Woody and I should get married, and I really regret this decision. So I put my wedding play dress on and I walked down the aisle, the steps to our basement, and got married.

As we both got older our adventures got just a tad more adventurous. She’s older than me so she was able to drive before I could. The worst thing anyone could’ve done is give Kurstin the keys to a car. The keys, to my grandparents, were just that: car keys. But to us, they were the keys to the world. We started off with small random trips to Walmart, milkshake runs , trips to GameStop, and just food runs. We got ourselves in deeper and deeper each time we picked up a set of keys. We went to the movies, the mall, even if we were broke, Walmart trips at two a.m., driving just because we wanted to listen to One Direction on the loudest possible volume and screaming every word of the song at the top our lungs, GameStop runs, random drives just because we wanted to vent to each other, milkshake runs everyday we were together and Target trips to see her “future husband”. Then there was a sudden shift in everything.

One day we were at GameStop and she got a call from someone under the name “Disney.” Confused, I looked over and asked who it was, but excited Kurstin answered it and ran outside. I quickly follow behind her and hear her telling whoever was on the phone some pretty important information. After what felt like an hour, she says, “Okay, thank you so much! Bye,” she hangs up. As were walking back to the car I’m persistently begging her to tell me what’s going on. She finally explained to me that she’d received the opportunity to go to Disney and work, but also be going to college at the same time. I was super excited for her and proud of her, but I was heartbroken that this meant an end to our adventures was closer than I anticipated.

A few weeks after she was accepted, she boarded a plane for Florida. I honestly thought I would never get to see her again because how on Earth was I going to get a ride to Florida? Fortunately, a year later she came back to visit and had the opportunity to stay for a couple months. In those few months we didn’t really have any adventures like the old “us” would have had because she was so absorbed in this new guy she met. Of course I was happy that she found someone who made her happy, but of course I’m going to be jealous because that’s my best friend and I’m not trying to share considering I never had to. When she had to leave this  time it hurt me even more than the first time because it’s like I never actually got time with her. I haven’t seen her since 2015, but this distance has made us both appreciate each other more. To this day she is still my best friend, but we’re just thirteen hours away from each other. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything never, no. Never. Your friendship is the best present ever,” Tigger says.