Snow Queen

Summertime has always been one of the most tempermental times of the year for me...with the first warm breeze that sweeps into the city, invading it to billow into a full on blast furnace comes change...

Over the years Ive learned to accept the changes that come with this time...like the seasons of the year...passionate..growing...dying...blooming...the transformations that sweep into my life run their course like a flowing river that cannot be stopped..Ive learned not to interfere with mother nature...I go with the flow and no matter how much I want to step in...I understand that although you do you have control over your life...you have no control over what comes into it...when it comes to destiny, it is futile to not accept your limitations.

Rewind to a warm June afternoon..Sitting in one of my regular lunch hangouts absentmindedly twirling a strand of my hair, contemplating upcoming weekends plans and debating over whether I should have pasta or the healthier option of another boring salad, I waited with a classmate for a friend of mine to pick up an acquaintance of hers and join us.

As Sophie Ellis was singing in the background about murder and dancefloors my classmate randomly aknowledged the door with a nod of her head just in time for me to look up and see my friend walk in towards the table with her acquaintance, who swept in like a hurricane towards us...and all of a sudden I felt a completely changing dynamic in the atmosphere.

Dressed head to toe in cream holding a black purse in her hand, her hair swung nonchalantly over her shoulders...I sensed an imposing aura of self assuredness and something else I couldnt seem to place my finger on..something that just rubbed me the wrong way...surrounded by an elusive air of authority..the only touch of defiance...colour, was her red lipstick..I took one look at it and balked...

I was almost 23 years old at the time and was going through a myriad of phases that summer in the aftermath of a metamorphosis that had me examining and questioning myself and life more deeply...

Armed with the arrogance of youth I was in the midst of my quest to find answers for all the confusion I was feeling about what life really meant...I held pure contempt for any notion of the words authority and restraint and was torn in the realm of being in a world that I wanted so much to understand but yet not conform to at the same time..I stepped out of my comfort zone and found myself in foreign territory.

I was going through my rebellious phase.

Worldy and sophisticated, she represented everything I wanted to grow into at the time...She had all the answers, held her own and seemed always in control.

I was fascinated and repelled at the same time...I didnt want to associate with her for fear of being tainted in some way by her worldliness and thus bursting my own bubble...Her reality was too realistic for an idealist like me...I was happy manipulating life in my own way..my thrill-seeking freespirited devil-may-care attitude to life had me believing that the world was my oyster and that I was invinscible.

We disliked each other immediately.

We ended up being the best of friends.

Its been five years since that summer afternoon...Words cant begin to describe what a journey its been...I think in the span of all these years we've lived a million lives...gone through so much and Ive really been blessed to have her constant presence in my life...shes been the wisest person Ive ever known...my mentor and inspiration...in her youth lies an old soul thats never failed to persevere...I thank her for being a sanctuary to my innermost thoughts...for allowing me to do what I needed to without judgement and for never making it easy by giving me the answers...rather she let me find my own way...its been laughter and insanity and fantabulous memories.

Heres to you...a toast of bubbly cheers your way...May this year make you wiser sssexier and closer to your dreams than ever...Happy Birthday NJ xxx