CHAPTER 8: BECKY AND TESS
“How did the cheerleading try-outs go, Tess?” her mother
asked.
“I think I did well…and I made a new friend.”
“What happened?”
“You know I have been trying to do a jump-split. I saw a
girl doing it perfectly and asked her for help. She found the mistake I was
making, and after that, they were easy.”
“That was especially generous since the two of you were
both competing for places on the cheerleading team. Who is she?”
“Becky Cannon. She’s new in the school, very nice, tall,
athletic, pretty, and Black.”
Both girls made the cheerleading team, although Becky’s
parents later had her quit to spend more time on her studies. They emphasized
education for all three of the Cannon children. They had even held Becky back a
year before starting school, too, so she was older than average when she
graduated, near the top of her class, as did Tess.
Becky’s parents stressed the importance of career planning.
“Keep your eye on the ball,” her dad said, and he did not mean the basketball,
football, or baseball used by the school teams the girls would be cheering for,
but rather on the goals of education and the career opportunities a good
education would open.
Becky’s talents and Tess’s were somewhat different, as were
their interests, but they were to remain best friends throughout middle school
and high school. They were different yet similar, and they went together so
well. “Variety is the spice of life,” and the two spiced each other’s lives.
Each was happy for the other's successes without jealousy.
They did not expect, nor did they require, each other to be the same. “Play the cards you are dealt,” Mr. Williams
urged, “go with your strengths, strengthen your weaknesses.” Becky’s parents
welcomed Tess and Tess’s parents welcomed Becky, valuing their friendship.
If the girls had been able to see into the future, they
would have found that they were still friends fifty years after graduation.
Becky attended a religious college in Georgia and later earned her Master’s
Degree in Education from a college in Michigan. In contrast, Tess attended a
local community college and later became a nurse, a profession she maintained
until retirement. One became a mother; the other did not. Both women cared for
their elderly mothers at home. They never lost touch with each other.
Becky’s generous help at the cheerleader try-outs that
first day sparked a lifelong warm relationship.
“You get only one chance to make a good first impression,”
her mother would say. This held true. For Becky and Tess, it was nearly love at
first sight and stayed that way despite the ups and downs of their marriages
and careers.
Moral: A friend is precious. Be one.
