From first connecting, as we rode our bikes to language college over the same railway bridge, to Singapore noodles and Weetabix in her mother’s kitchen. From volleyball, college parties, table tennis, celebrations of national sports wins, and birthdays, to graduations with our families. Later on, stacks of handwritten letters were mailed back and forth across continents, as we kept each other informed of every minute detail of our new lives, after both leaving Danish shores to explore the world. Many years later, we found ourselves both living in San Francisco with our families by the magic alignment of the stars. Later again, we organised summer meets in our native country, walking into late night Scandinavian sunsets, whilst having never ending conversations about anything and everything. In recent years, our connection has been kept alive through many, many, ever so many FaceTime calls and texts over the seas, as we again have found ourselves separated by continents. Throughout, our friendship has grown and stretched in all the right places.
Meet Sanne, one of my oldest (29 years and counting) and dearest friends.
Friendship is one of those things that makes us human’s light up. It carries us through the inevitable hard times, and it celebrates the good times, without agenda or jealousy. It can change and it can change us, challenge us, and encourages personal development in an array of positive directions. If the friendship contains mutual respect, support, trust, intimacy through open, candid disclosure, and an appreciation of each other’s uniqueness, then toxicity and competitiveness is not given any air to breathe, and all that is left is this: three decades of shared experiences that bind you together like sisters.
Human developmental psychology refers to it as ‘fictive kin’ (Ackerman, Kenrick, & Schaller, 2007), saying that these relationships, that have been developed without obligation, expectation, or through blood or marriage, can become so important throughout the lifespan of individuals, that the lines between friendship and family become (wonderfully) blurred. What is left is simply a banging kind of kin!
That was the tell part, which just leaves the show part.
During one of our summer meets, which included long walks, deep talks, plenty of food (always), hot drinks, an outdoor concert, dancing, laughing, and the sharing of quality time with more special fictive kin, as well as our own kin – we managed to squeeze in a professional photo shoot.
It was the morning after a sleepover in my airbnb in Copenhagen’s Vesterbro. Sanne’s professional expertise, after a tertiary background in Law and English Literature studies, followed by a career in linguistics management for Google and LinkedIn in Silicon Valley, is Mindfullness. With the morning light from the window of the apartment providing the natural lighting for us, we danced, sat and laughed, as we snapped some black and white frames for the marketing of her new business venture, which has the the aim of combining her two great loves: Mindfulness and Dance.
These were the results.
CHRISTINA NIELSEN FOTOGRAFI 