By Simina Mistreanu

When I was 7 years old, my parents sent me and my sister to live with ourgrandmother in a city about 50 kilometers away from their village in western Romania. There, we could both attend better schools. When I started high school, my sister went to college in a different city, and my grandmother moved back to the countryside. I lived by myself.

七岁的时候，父母送我和妹妹去50公里外的城市上学，在那里，外祖母照顾着我们。然而到了高中，妹妹去了另外一个城市，外祖母也回到了乡下。我不得不开始一个人生活。

My mother would come visit a couple of times every week and bring me homemade food. But I mostly survived on pizza because I was too lazy to heat up the food or keep track of how long it had been in the fridge. I was also too lazy to make myself sandwiches for lunch at school.

母亲一周来看我几次，带来家里的饭菜。不过大多时候，我都靠披萨度日，因为我实在太懒，连热热饭菜或者做做三明治都觉得麻烦。

One of my classmates, Oana, would share her sandwich with me. Her mom picked up on that and started packing her two sandwiches every day and an apple cut in half.

那时候，我的同学Oana总会跟我分享她的三明治。于是她妈妈每天都做两个三明治，还把一个苹果切两半，我们一人一半。

Together with my desk mate of five years, Larisa, Oana and another classmate, Alex, we became the inseparable four.

We would do everything together, all the time. We would get coffee and smoke cigarettes at a nearby coffee shop after school, talking endlessly about our colleagues, teachers, school subjects, girlfriends and boyfriends and dreams for the future. We would do our homework together, banking on what each of us was good at.

As soon as we got home, we would call each other because there was still plenty to talk about. They would sometimes all spend the night at my place.

后来，我，Oana，Larisa还有Alex成了关系最硬的“铁四角”。不管做什么，我们都得在一起。放学后，我们一起去临近的咖啡店喝喝咖啡，抽抽烟，天南海北的侃，关于我们的老师、同学、课题、男朋友、女朋友、未来、梦想……我们一起做家庭作业，一起寻思各自的闪光点。就连回到家，我们还会打电话给对方，因为总有聊不尽的话啊。

We were there for each other during those years more than any other people in our lives – through a demanding high school, through the first drunken parties, the first relationships, the first heartbreaks, the baccalaureate and the nervousness of moving away for college.I had a family in the city.

在这段互相陪伴的时间中，我经历了紧张的高中生活，有第一次在party上喝醉、第一次恋爱、第一次失恋、第一次做毕业致辞和第一次为即将到来的大学生活惴惴不安。在那座城市，他们就像家庭一样，一直在我身边。

Oana visited me in Beijing last week. She previously attended a conference in Taipei and took an extra week off to come see me. She’s now a visual engineer in France, where she has lived for nine years, since finishing high school. We’ve managed to keep in touch over the years

上周，Oana来北京看我。她现在在法国做一个视觉工程师。高中毕业后她就去了法国，现在已经在那里待了九年。我们一直保持着联络。

During winter holidays, we’d all go home to see our families and each other. When I first visited her in France, during my second year in college, I met one of her colleagues, a young man from Moldova. We dated for two years, during which I visited him and Oana every few months. We attended the weddings of former colleagues. This winter, I visited her at her new home in Lyon. Next year, we’re getting ready for our 10-year high school reunion.

我第一次去法国看她是在大二的时候。那时候我还邂逅了她的一个罗马尼亚同事，和那小伙谈了两年恋爱。那段时间，我也经常见Oana，我们还一起参加了老同学的婚礼。刚刚过去的冬天，我还去了她里昂的新家。明年就是我们高中以来的十周年重聚了，我们都迫不及待。

Whenever I met Oana, I felt like we were picking up where we left off, even if it had been more than a year since we last saw each other. The updates were short because we had all the background. Social barriers went down. We were again young and at home.

不管什么时候见到Oana，我都感觉与她如此亲近，虽然我们可能已经一年多没见了。我们很快就会相谈甚欢，就像回到了高中时代。

Mihaela Nicula, a banker from Bucharest, says about her best friend from high school, Cristiana Grigore, who now lives in the United States:

“Every time I hear from her or I talk to her or I think about her or her birthday is coming up, in moments like these I feel joy in my heart, and I feel nostalgic,” she says. “I associate my childhood, when I had no worries, with my friendship with Cristiana. It’s like when you were a child and you were going to bed, and your mom would sing you a lullaby.”

“每次我听到她的消息，或者跟她聊天，或者想起她将至的生日，我的心里就变得欢快起来，然后又会染上一丝岁月不再的感慨。她在我无忧无虑的童年时光里，一直是不可缺少的存在。就像小时候，入睡前，妈妈一定要唱的摇篮曲一样。”

Sunday afternoon, as Oana and I watched the sun set over the mountains from the Great Wall at Mutianyu, I thought about how lucky we were to be there together, and to have a shared history.

I’m proud of the adult she’s become, and I feel like I’ll love her forever for the teenager that she was.

周日的下午，我和Oana坐在慕田峪长城一角，一起看日落。我一直想，我该多幸运，可以有她在身边。我为她的成长而自豪，我并且会永远珍惜她，就像当年，珍惜那个与我手牵手放学回家的小女孩一样。

Oana is, even today, my sounding board. She’s a patient ear who understands me quickly because she has witnessed me growing up. She’s someone who’s willing to stay up with me until 2 a.m. before an overseas Skype interview. And she’s someone who’s always ready to share a sandwich and half of an apple.

即使到今天，Oana依然是我最亲密的朋友。她看着我成长，理解我的一切。她可以不顾一切陪我熬夜到凌晨，她可以随时与我分享一切。只要打开记忆的阀门，Oana就站在我高中时代的光影里，笑盈盈的看着我。