Alissa's Letter

Dear princess P,
When we first met I truly had no idea how much you would change my life. What started off as a silly excuse to skip school soon became a story of how I met my best friend. While we were young at 18 and 16 I knew we would create a bond that would last forever. Paige and I spent many days together in lacrosse, getting food (specifically chipotle), and spent endless hours creating crazy memories that we will remember forever.

One memory I’ll never forget is the day I thought I lost Paige forever. We had been best-friends for over 5 years now but a couple years into our friendship I’ll never forget when her disease scared me. Paige and I spent many late nights and weekends together and one night we chose to treat ourselves to hibachi dinner for the experience and atmosphere. Later that night I would learn the severe effects of Celiac and just what it does to a person you care about.

Paige was extra careful to make sure her food and drinks were prepared safe and she double checked when the food was served but, as I’m sure many of you know, Celiac is never taken as seriously as it should be. One way or another, she was served gluten and our night would take a different route. Paige spent all night over the toilet and ended up in the ER that morning. I truly have never been more horrified. While I must admit I have had my share of teasing Paige… “What's for breakfast P cardboard?” However, When you see something like this first hand it puts so much into perspective.. 

While I have seen paige hit many obstacles over the last 5 years of our friendship, I have also seen her take every single challenge head on. The perseverance and determination paige has is something that I admire and love the most about her. While I may never fully understand celiac or the affects it truly has on your life paige has shown me although it is a disease there is still so much happiness to be made out of it. Whether it’s spending days with friends creating new recipes or starting a blog to help people like her. paige is determined to life a long happy life and celiac has nothing on her ❤️

​I still have so much to learn from you and I’m so excited to see where this journey takes you! 

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