Are you friends with someone that you have known for a long time, and will do anything for? I have a friend, who I’ve known for all my life, and it was his birthday this past weekend. I’ve known him for so long because we’re neighbors, and our families have lived on the same block since before we were born. He lives with his grandparents, and his mom has only been around the last few years. He doesn’t call her mom, but rather by her first name. My friend isn’t poor, but they don’t have a lot.

Sometimes his grandparents forget about him, since they are really old, in their 80’s, and they sit around on the couch, and go to casinos a lot. We became friends in kindergarten, because we used to sneak out of the classroom to play in the bathroom. We would army crawl out of the class, and the teacher wouldn’t even see us. I still sneak out with him to go skateboarding, and to hang out. He always teases me, saying that I’m spoiled, because my mom buys me whatever I want, whenever I ask for it, but I don’t think I am. However, when I saw his Converse sneakers, one day while we were hanging out in my garage, I saw that they were old and worn. It made me think that I’m pretty lucky because I have a lot of shoes. I’d give him a pair of my shoes, but his feet are too large, and he wears a size 13. So when I saw his Instagram story, saying that it was his birthday, I remembered his shoes. I knew that he didn’t have any good pairs of shoes, because he skates and they’re all torn up. His Converse shoes have holes on the bottom, and broken laces. Meanwhile, the other pair has cracks all over the bottom, so sand and dirt can get in. While he has a pair of slides, those aren't really shoes.

I had remembered that he wanted new shoes for Christmas, but he didn't get any. As a result, I had an idea to get him a new pair of shoes that would last him a while. I didn’t have any money so I asked my mom if she would buy them for him. She of course said yes, although I had to work half the price off working in the backyard. My mom likes my friend, and says that he’s a nice kid, so she will do anything for him. Unfortunately, the new shoes were $60, and I had to work for 3 hours laying big rocks in the backyard, since she paid me $10 an hour. However, I thought it was worth it to get him new shoes, because everyone needs a new pair. I hope he likes them.

The shoes arrived today, and it took only two days. I wanted to give them to my friend, but my mom said that I needed to pay them off first. She then told me to go lay some rocks. Why does she have to be like this? I’m so lazy that I don’t want to do anything, but I knew that he needed these shoes. So I had to do the work, because there was no way to change my mom's mind! I did my school work, and math tutoring. Afterward, I went outside, grabbed a shovel, and got to work. First, I put a tarp under the rocks to stop weeds from growing. I had already done 5 feet of the planter, but I had gotten lazy and quit. There were so many spiders under the rocks, and I hate spiders! It only took me about 30 minutes to do the job, and when my mom looked at the work, she said good job. However, I still needed to trim the tarp and fill in some spots. Eventually, the job was finished.

Soon after I finished talking to her, I washed up, and started wrapping my friend's shoes. Since I do origami I’m pretty good at wrapping presents. Then I walked over to his house to give it to him, and my dad made sure that I wore a mask and he told me to keep 6 feet away. It felt really good walking over there, because I knew that the gift would last him a while. He thanked me for the gift, because he usually doesn't get any gifts on his birthday. All around, it was a good day. I still owe my mom an hour of work, but my dad paid me $15 an hour so that I worked less. He then talked a little about minimum wage. Later, when I was checking my phone, I saw that my friend had written a thank you on his Instagram story about the shoes. Since we can’t go outside, he’s been wearing them around the house to break them in. I can’t wait for us to go skating again.

I’m so glad that I was able to do this for my friend, since he’s always been there for me. I’m grateful to be able to help him because this gift will last him a long time. I know if I need anything, I can count on him.