The Filosas
A Friendship for the Ages
These are the Filosas. I met Kristen in college — WE ARE! Our paths first crossed in when Kristen and I were assigned to the same THON committee during our senior (fourth) year at Penn State. Little did we know then that this assignment would turn into a lifelong best friendship. We would see each other at our weekly committee meetings, but also get together on the weekends for fun nights out drinking ashtrays and mind erasers (RIP G-man), and probably stopping for Canyon Pizza or pokey sticks on the way home.
We both ended up doing a fifth year at Penn State, with Kristen spending her first semester in New Jersey for an internship. I eagerly awaited that final semester when she'd return so we could reunite and continue the good times and the friendship that had truly blossomed during our senior year. When we graduated, my parents gifted me a trip to Jamaica with a friend, and I knew exactly who I wanted to bring with me (it was Kristen). We had an amazing week, with so many memories and outrageous inside jokes.
After college, Kristen moved to North Carolina and I moved to Virginia. Despite the distance, we continued to keep in touch, and I would visit her in the summers when I had time off at the end of the school year. I met Drew early on in their relationship, and Kristen was well in the loop about the early stages of my relationship with Tom, too. Over the next several years we moved in with our now husbands (Kristen & Drew having moved to New Jersey), got married (within 5 months of each other), and even had our first babies in the same month that we each got married! We always seem to be in the same phase of life as one another, and Kristen is absolutely my favorite person to be going through life with, even from afar.
With us, nothing is off limits, zero judgement is involved, and we genuinely care to share life updates with one another. It’s one of those friendships that just feels effortless, even if we only get to see each other a couple times of year.
A New Generation of Friendship
This year, we went up to New Jersey to visit the Filosas for Memorial Day weekend. While this wasn’t the first time Alice and Eli had met, it was the first time they were both old enough to truly interact with one another and… oh my goodness did they just become best friends like their mamas?
The moment we walked in the door, Alice screamed “baby!” Eli plopped on the floor and started crawling as fast as he could down the hallway, Alice chasing behind him, and they were giggling away together for the whole weekend. My favorite part about this session is how you can’t even tell that Eli isn’t part of their family. When friends love your children in the same way that they love their own, it shows. And I will be forever grateful for this family friendship. I can’t wait to see it continue to grow in the years to come.
You are deserving of witnessing your own every day beauty. Here’s yours, Kristen and Drew.
