Finally, this year, May 11th falls on a Wednesday. May 11th is a very important day for me.

Why, you may ask? 

The reality is that I don’t really know…

You see, 10 years ago, at the end of my freshman year of college, May 11th 2012, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the date was significant for some reason. The date stuck out in my mind, but I couldn’t remember why. Something had surely happened that day the year before, but I had no idea what. I pushed it out of my mind until I talked to my high school friend Rachel (you know, the Rachel that steals money from the founding fathers) later that week.

“It’s so weird you should say that, because I’ve been thinking the same thing! Something must’ve happened on that day, because it keeps popping up in my mind, too!”

Freaky, right?

Rachel and I spent the rest of that week trying to figure out what could’ve happened on May 11th the year before that made that date so memorable. But we couldn’t come up with anything!

Rachel saved all of her high school planners and checked that date in her senior year planner, but the only thing that was written was that that was the date of the AP Physics test — something that we would definitely choose to forget rather than remember.

The only other guess that we had was that this was the day that we had dinner our senior year. There’s no way for us to know this, however, because apparently neither one of us wrote down what day the dinner date was nor did we document it on social media. This seems weird to me considering the fact that we legitimately documented EVERYTHING ELSE on Facebook. A dinner together might seem like a small, everyday thing, but that dinner was probably the start of our friendship!

On the day of the dinner date (whichever day that might’ve been) during the school day, I drew Rachel a map from her house to where I worked. She was going to come pick me up for dinner since I was an anxious driver and had no car. I’m not exaggerating on the map, either. I legitimately drew every road, light, and the three crosses outside of the school where I worked. I actually think she still has the map…which, of course, wasn’t dated unlike most other pieces of art.

We ate at the local Italian restaurant and came up with a bunch of inside jokes that would last the rest of our friendship.

Rachel especially loved when I screamed “TRAIN!” at the top of my lungs as we drove over some very empty train tracks. Good times.

Since we have no idea what happened that day but obviously feel as though that date is meaningful (maybe something meaningful will actually happen on this date in the future and we just had some sort of sixth sense about it?), we have declared that date our friendiversary.

Could it have been the day of an epic High School Musical or Spongebob binge? Maybe it was the day that a new Maroon 5 album came out? Was it the day that we filmed one of our silly Facebook videos? Or the date that a Disney movie or new episode of a Disney show premiered? Maybe it was the first time we ever split a calzone? Perhaps it was the day that we discovered the YouTube video “My Kitty is a Very Bad Mystic.” 

We may never know.

Either way, every year, we celebrate May 11th together (or at least send each other a text wishing the other a happy anniversary).

In 2014, we went to see the band American Authors in concert. In case you’re not familiar, their big hit was “Best Day of My Life” (although that entire album is great, so I recommend listening to all of it in its entirety). Since I loved all of their music, I asked Rachel if she wanted to go see them with me. As my ride-or-die concert buddy, she happily agreed.

When we got there, there was a line to get your picture taken holding a blackboard where you wrote what the best day of your life was. I’m not sure if they used that for their social media or what, but obviously plenty of people before us were writing down the dates that they had their child or met their significant other. We stood in line pondering what we should put on the board until we came up with the only logical answer.

May 11th.

Even though we have no idea what happened on that day all of those years ago, it’s an important day in the history of our friendship. So go out and celebrate May 11th in typical Rachel-Renata fashion: by getting a calzone with copious amounts of cheese and black olives!

Happy May 11th, Rachel!