“You can sit here as long as you want.”

I’ve always known Susie. I wasn’t good friends with her for most of my school life, but that was because we just never saw each other.

Senior year, we had classes and a lot of things in common and we became friends instantly. I was always so shy, and she was so outgoing and willing to be friends that I came out of my shell. Although I was close with her at the end of our senior year, it was like we were close for a long time. I will always remember the things we would talk about and do in high school, like roaming the halls and trying to find the “good-looking substitute teacher”, and put on red lipstick in study hall because we thought we were awesome (we were).

But one memory will always stay with me. It was senior year, and all my friends were mad at me and left me at the lunch table by myself and went to the library. So I sat in the cafe and just ate by myself. I was upset, but didn’t really let it show. Susie came over to me and invited me to sit with her at her table, and told me “They aren’t nice friends, are they? You can sit here as long as you want.”

Someone who I just recently started talking to invited me over to their table to sit with them, while all of my best friends for years left me alone. I, as most, wouldn’t reach out to someone and invite them to sit with me… especially in high school. But Susie wasn’t like the rest of us. She was an amazing ray of sunshine.

I’m still friends with some of those people, but I knew someone was looking out for me and genuinely cared. I still live within my old ways, but ever since that day I always thought about how amazing it would be to be like her. If everyone was like Susie, the world would be an amazing, care-free place. I just wish we could all follow in her footsteps. I know that I’ll try. Everytime I eat lunch by myself, I can always hear her sweet voice inviting me over to her table… and even when, in reality, I am alone… I know she’s sitting their with me in spirit. LIVE LIKE SUSIE.

-Chelsea Salzan