When MaryKat joined a high school in her home town of Kansas City making close friends didn’t come as easily as she’d hoped. “I felt a bit alone when I started,” she says. “I didn’t really enjoy the first year that much. I was still trying to find my way and discover what I was passionate about.”
During the summer after freshman year, she was invited to a get-together at the local swimming pool. “When I arrived, I saw Averie. We had some mutual friends but I didn’t know her at all,” she says. Nobody else showed up, and MaryKat admits she wanted to escape the situation. “I get social anxiety when it’s just me with someone I don’t know well.”
However, as soon as they started chatting, her worries disappeared. “I was really excited to see MaryKat because it was someone new to speak to,” says Averie. “I’d also come to the school not knowing many people and although I’d spent all year trying to make friends and have fun, I hadn’t really met anyone I was really close to.”
MaryKat says their shared school experience meant they had more in common than she expected and the conversation “flowed easily”. After a few hours at the pool, they spent the rest of the day together. “I loved how easy-going she was and after that we started hanging out all the time,” says Averie.
As well as seeing each other at school, the pair enjoyed making mixed CDs together and both had their first jobs at the same ice-cream parlour. “We could drive at 14 with a permit, so we spent lots of time driving around together listening to music, which is the most midwest thing you can do,” laughs MaryKat. “We also went to all our dances together, as well as teenage parties in cornfields.”
When they were 16, MaryKat’s mother lost her job and the family relocated to South Carolina. “I was able to stay with my cousin and complete high school,” says MaryKat. “Averie was there for me the whole time and I could always lean on her. When I was feeling lonely and missing my family, she looked out for me. My independence is now a major part of my personality and she helped me to develop that.”
After school, the pair went to different colleges, with MaryKat moving to South Carolina to study visual communications and German, and Averie attending university in Kansas to study business and French. When they graduated, Averie moved to New York to work in fashion merchandising while MaryKat travelled the world, working in communications for non-profit organisations. “During the pandemic, we lived together for two years in New York,” says Averie.
While MaryKat has now returned to travelling around Europe with a refugee organisation, Averie has remained in New York and the pair don’t go a day without talking. “We have also taken lots of trips together – she makes amazing itineraries,” says MaryKat. “I love skiing and hiking, while Averie likes the beach, but we always find a way to compromise.” In recent years, they’ve been to Denver, San Diego, Paris and London, and they’re hoping to visit Croatia soon, too. They even enjoy the downsides of travelling together. “When we went to London at new year, we couldn’t get a taxi and ended up walking barefoot in the cold for an hour because our shoes hurt so much,” says Averie. “With anyone else it would have been horrible but she makes these experiences fun.”
Averie also appreciates her friend’s caring nature. “It’s really important to MaryKat that her work helps people and that’s a really admirable trait,” she says. “She makes everyone feel comfortable and at ease.”
For MaryKat, opposites definitely attract. “She’s into fashion; I’m very much not and she has to help me figure out what to wear. She loves hot weather; I love being in cold climates. But we share the same political values and loyalty is really important to us,” she says. “Averie gives people the best advice and she’s really good at being objective. She makes me want to be a better person.”
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