Clarke Central High School freshman Natalie Schliekelman and Sagami Women’s High School sophomore Georgia Mei Carter pose for a picture together on Dec. 21, 2014, the night before Carter’s move to Japan. Photo by Paul Schliekelman
Journalism I student Natalie Schliekelman writes about her relationship with a friend who moved from Athens to Atsugi, Japan.
6,901 miles. 12.5 hours. 14 time zones.
That’s the distance between Atsugi, Japan, and Athens, Georgia.
That’s the distance between me and my best friend since age six, Georgia Mei Carter.
We met in the first grade, when she moved from Chattanooga to Athens, and we started up a conversation while waiting to get picked up after school. We shared a class every year throughout elementary school except third grade.
In late November of our fifth-grade year, the news came. Georgia Mei’s mother, a Japanese-American citizen, got a job in Japan, and they were moving there over winter break.
A letter from Sagami Women’s High School sophomore Georgia Mei Carter to Journalism I student Natalie Schliekelman rests on a desk. Schliekelman and Carter have been sending each other mail for the past four years as a means of maintaining their friendship, despite Schliekelman living in America and Carter living in Japan. Photo by Natalie Schliekelman
For the first year or two we sent frequent letters, and although the letters slowly dwindled, we email often and catch up every few months through FaceTime.
Every time we talk to each other, Georgia Mei tries to give me reasons to come visit her in Japan. I have a portion of a wall dedicated to all the postcards she’s sent me to convince me to visit. Tokyo, Shibuya, owl cafes, Shinto shrines, Japanese schools — the list of things she’s told me about goes on.
Now that I’m old enough to feel comfortable traveling alone internationally, the dream is getting closer to becoming a reality. We are now making plans for me to visit her for a couple weeks during an upcoming summer.
Four postcards showing different Japanese attractions hang on a bookshelf in Journalism 1 student Natalie Schliekelman’s room. Schliekelman received these postcards from her friend Sagami Women’s High School sophomore Georgia Mei Carter, who moved to Japan in 2016. Photo by Natalie Schliekelman
It’s been four long years since we’ve seen each other in person. We’ve changed, that’s for certain, but at our cores, we’re still the same people, the same best friends.
Our friendship has survived for eight years, and it certainly isn’t going to be stopped by a little thing like 7,000 miles.
More from Natalie Schliekelman
