We love showing that long distance friendship works. That’s why we’re excited to introduce you to Jen and her best friend Ewuraekua. They’ve been BFFs for 15 years, but Jen is boarding a flight for Rwanda on September 13 to begin her service as a Peace Corps Education Volunteer. She’ll be gone 27 months– but they’ve developed a keep-in-touch plan that includes sharing a Traveling Journal.

TTJ: How does it feel knowing you’ll be away from your best friend for so long?

Jen: The prospect of going on this journey without my best friend scares me a bit and the idea of saying goodbye to someone who has been such a positive force in my life is heartbreaking.

TTJ: How did you and Ewuraekua meet?

Jen: Ewuraekua and I met in 7th grade, we were in a few classes together and had a few other mutual friends. I was kind of a nerdy kid and I kind of clung to her, she was really extremely welcoming. Coming into high school we became extremely close and continued that friendship when she lived in Ghana with her family for sophomore year, it was extremely difficult not having her here to share that part of high school – learning to drive, boys, new friends, school etc. We have always been close – she and I – and we have grown into our own people now and we’ve come to appreciate how special our friendship is.

TTJ: How have you managed to stay close for so long?

Jen: We can both get busy with life, relationships, graduating college etc – but we always seem to be able to come back to each other and it is as if nothing has changed. She has truly been one of the greatest friends a girl could ask for and the greatest gift I can give her in return is my friendship. She’s currently working with autistic children in Philadelphia while setting herself up to go back to graduate school for Psychology while I graduated with my teaching credentials and plan to come back and explore my options here as well as abroad. She will be the last person I say goodbye to before leaving for Rwanda, and neither of us would have it any other way.

TTJ: How do you plan to stay in touch while you’re away for so long?

Jen: A few weeks ago, we were discussing things we could do to keep in touch, facebook, iChat, emails – all of these seemed a bit impersonal. She came across your website and we instantly fell in love with this idea! We plan to use your concept in our own way – sort of – we have devised rules and a plan of how this would work but the bottom line is that for the entire 27 months of my service in Rwanda, I’ll be more connected to my best friend than I had ever imagined.

TTJ: How do you think having the Traveling Journal will keep you connected?

Jen: I know this way missing the events, the moments, the shopping trips and funny commentary – won’t be nearly as bad. I wanted simply to email and thank you for creating this project. I love the idea, I cannot wait now to start our first (of what I’m sure will be many) journal.

As a writer I love telling stories. I look forward to interviewing interesting people and sharing their stories with others. I don’t always like writing about myself though, unless it has to do with a topic I’m passionate about. And one of those topics I love writing about is The Traveling Journal. One of the positions I hold is features editor for a South Carolina women’s magazine called Belle. Every month I coordinate articles and write a few as well. For our August issue I was excited to have the opportunity to share the story of The Traveling Journal with our readers.

In “The Traveling Journal takes Manhattan” I give readers an inside look at how we ended up on the Today Show, what the experience was like and how Steve Carrell gave us encouragement. I wrote about the incredible day when I got the exciting job of calling each of my friends to tell them that The Today Show wanted to fly us to NYC– a day I will never forget! I even shared about the sixth link in our circle of friends, Jessica. I wrote about her black curly hair, wrinkly hands and the gift she gave us– the gift of learning just how precious friendships are. Since you can’t get your own copy of Belle unless you’re lucky enough to live in the Upstate, here’s a sample, my last paragraph:

And just before our four minute segment was over we handed Hoda and Kathie Lee gift bags with their own traveling journals tucked inside, which got a great endorsement from Hoda. We all agree that it really couldn’t have gone better. And wh en we started this long distance friendship tradition ten years ago, we never imagined the journey it would take us on.

And that’s the honest truth. But we’re excited to see where all of this is headed.

Do you have a friend that is always running late? She takes forever to do her hair or figure out what to wear and meanwhile you’re perpetually left waiting? I do too and her name is Tonya. As a somewhat impatient person this quality usually annoys me terribly, but it actually came in handy a couple of weeks ago. I’ve met a lot of celebrities over the years. I’ve attended the Oscars and movie premiers and red carpet events. But one of my all-time favorite celebrity encounters happened during our recent trip to New York City to appear on The Today Show– and it wouldn’t have happened if Tonya hadn’t taken forever to get ready. We were running late to dinner and I was leading the pack down 51st street to catch a cab to the Meatpacking District. Dawn, Melly, Morgenne and Tonya were a few steps behind me, looking down at someone’s phone. As we approached a corner I almost literally ran into Steve Carell. “Steve!” I exclaimed as though I was bumping into an old friend. “Would you mind taking a quick picture with us. This is a special weekend for us. We’re in town to be on The Today Show.” I stuck my arm out and kindly ushered him to the edge of the sidewalk. At this point my friends looked up. Dawn screamed and Steve giggled and shooshed her at the same time. He knew that if we freaked out, surely other people who freak out and soon he’d have a mob surrounding him.

So we quickly posed for pictures and Steve offered us some words of encouragement for our upcoming interview. “You’ll do great,” he said. “They’re so nice over there.” Morgenne told him she was looking forward to his new movie and he said that’s why he was in town. I also told him we were actually just talking about him because earlier in the day we laughed about the scene in Date Night where they end up at the boat house– the quietest place in New York City.

A few minutes later he was gone, leaving behind a pool of giggly, starstruck girls in his wake. We spent the rest of the evening gushing over how kind he was, wondering what other celebrities we might randomly meet and agreeing that anybody else would surely be a let down after sharing such a special moment with our pal Steve.

When we showed up to do our interview on The Today Show we told the producer about our amazing encounter. “You should mentioned that!” Angela said. So when Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb asked us on air about how our trip to New York City was we gladly said, “We bumped into Steve Carell and he said you guys were great!” But of course none of that would have happened if Tonya hadn’t taken her sweet time getting ready. So in the future Tonya, take all the time you need!

Not only have we received national media attention (thanks again to the Wall Street Journal and The Today Show!) but there’s been a lot of local interest as well. This morning our lovely co-founder Morgenne Basye got up super early so she’d look extra cute for her appearance on Good Morning Arizona. Here’s what the wrote about The Traveling Journal on their website:

“In this age of keeping in touch through technology, it’s refreshingly retro to stay up-to-date on your friends’ lives the old-fashioned way — by mail. We’re not talking about ordinary letters. This is much more personal, not to mention fun and longer lasting.

It’s something the women behind The Traveling Journal have been doing for years. They’re all from a small town in Iowa and have been friends since grade school. Once they graduated from college, they scattered across the country.

Morgenne Basye landed here in the Valley. She shared their journal — parts of it, any way — with Kaley O’Kelley and explained how you can start a Traveling Journal for yourself and your BFFs.”

Check out the video of Morgenne’s interview– didn’t she do great!?

Read the full article at AZFamily.com. Way to go Morgy!

This was the first time I had ever been to New York City.  I had never really thought about taking a trip there because I am more of a tropical trip type girl.  I love nature and being outdoors, so if I was to plan a trip it would be to a place where I could be in the sunshine doing fun outdoor activities or laying on a sandy beach somewhere. Don’t get me wrong, I was very excited when I found out that my best friends and I were going to take a trip to New York City together. 

Alison and Melissa have been to New York City a few times so they already had an idea of what to expect.  The one thing I wanted to make sure we made time for was to go to Central Park.  That sounded like my kind of place in a big, cement filled city. Green grass, big trees, rocks, park benches, water and  running trails… sign me up!

As we walked to the park it was early on a Sunday morning.  I remember noticing that the streets were actually quiet.  Not much traffic, so no taxi cabs honking, and not even very many people out walking the streets. I was surprised to feel very relaxed and comfortable.  A little part of me was getting really excited to see the park for the first time.  I had my camera ready to capture all the scenery. 

We crossed the street by the Plaza Hotel and saw all of the horse drawn carriages waiting at the entrance.   We walked a few more steps on the trail and I immediately saw a small pond with ducks swimming around and a man fishing.  A small bridge with crawling vines was just behind him, just like a scene from the movies.  I thought for another minute, as I stared at the bridge, and I remembered that this bridge looked very familiar.  It had been used in a movie.

We walked further into the park noticing all of the people running and walking their dogs.I found myself having mixed emotions.  A part of me was very comfortable and relaxed to be in such a beautiful place, but the other part of me was excited as I noticed all of the familiar scenes.  I took so many pictures of fountains, stairs, street vendors,  park benches and pathways that looked familiar from some of my favorite movies. We even decided to go to “the boathouse” (from the movie  27 Dresses) to take a row boat out on the water. We spent an hour on the water laughing, taking pictures and enjoying Central Park together.

Central Park was just as beautiful, clean and inviting as it is in the movies! 

When you go on national television, it can be a bit nerve racking.  But in in my case and Alison’s case, it was a lot nerve racking.

Alison and I both have a television background because we’ve both worked as on-air reporters.  But knowing what we know about television probably gave us all the ammunition we needed to become worry warts.

I was honestly okay until I got an email from Alison about a week before we were to leave for NYC.  You could tell from the tone of the email that she was completely scared for what could happen during a live television interview.  She being nervous made me nervous.

Dawn and Tonya were like old pros.  The two that have the least amount of public speaking experience were the ones who didn’t have butterflies or the jitters.  Although the morning of the show I could tell Dawn was nervous deep down because she was talking a lot.

The morning of the show, Tonya and I rocked out to “Club Can’t Handle Me” by Flo Rida.  Alison prayed.  Morgenne seemed normal.  But I know she was a bit concerned about Tonya and I’s behavior because she had a talk with us the night before about acting ‘professional’ as soon as we got inside NBC studios.  She pretty much laid down the law.  No fart jokes, no rubbing each other in inappropriate ways and no sex jokes.  Damn, there went our fun.  But I think Tonya and I did a very good job of not acting like our “normal” selves. 

On the walk home from the restaurant, we kept shouting obscenities on the streets of New York City to ‘get it out of our system’.   Tonya and I kept coming up with ones we hadn’t used in awhile or in some cases never used.  Needless to say, it made for a great time.  And just for the record, Alison would be completely embarrassed that I’m sharing this story and I honestly can say she was NOT shouting obscenities with us, rather just laughing at our stupidity. 

The weird thing was, everyone was so incredibly nice at NBC it made us all very calm and relaxed.  It was soothing to get your hair and make-up done and everyone there was so excited for us to share our story.

At one point Kathie Lee came up behind me, put both hands on my shoulders and asked how I was doing.  That made me feel completely relaxed.

Alison made her way back to her normal self which I was thankful for because that made me feel better.

But like I told the girls the night before during a toast, “If I were going to do this interview on my own, I know I would probably be crapping myself right now, but since I have my best friends by my side, all my worries have been lifted away.  And knowing you girls will be there to support me will definitely help me make it through the interview.” 

During the actual interview, I wasn’t nervous at all.  It felt like just a bunch of women sitting down and gabbing.

p.s. don’t eat a bunch of seafood the night before a big interview, it’ll go right through you.

Jessica was one of the first friends I made at elementary school. We both loved My Little Ponies, Barbies and summer days at the public swimming pool. We had our differences too– she loved black licorice, I hated it. She was smarter than me, but I was more outgoing. She had a crush on Brandon, while I liked his friend Adam. We also shared a love of Punky Brewster, a 1980s sitcom featuring a spunky orphan taken in by an elderly foster parent named Henry. We envied Punky’s flower cart bed, made up a dance routine to the theme song and decided to become ketchup sisters just like Punky and Cherie did.

So in 1984 in front of my little house on Magnolia Street in Sioux City, Iowa Jessica and I poured the condiment on our fingers, smooshed them together and from then on we declared that ketchup was thicker than water. We were five when we first became ketchup sisters, a pose we often recreated at different points of our childhood. I’m sure we would have done our ketchup sister pose at each other’s weddings, our ten year reunion, and maybe even as elderly women in the retirement home. But our high school graduation in 1997 was the last time I remember doing that. I shared that photo with the world this week during our appearance on The Today Show.

Jessica died in a car accident on a Nebraska highway on July 20, 2001. She was ejected from the backseat when the two-door car she was riding in with friends was t-boned by an empty livestock truck. Besides sharing ketchup, we shared what many other kids of the 1980s shared: a best friends necklace. Today I’m wearing mine, just as I always do on May 3, Jess’s birthday, and on July 20, the anniversary of her passing. It’s never an easy day, but like I said during our interview with Hoda and Kathie Lee, she gave us a special gift. None of us know how long we’ll have our confidants, our better halves or our ketchup sisters. At a very young age we learned that friends are priceless and should be treasured, because life can change in an instant.

One of the hardest parts of my young life would have to be the divorce of my parents when I was seven years old.  I was devastated!  My dad moved out of our house and eventually bought a house on South Lemon Street in Sioux City, Iowa.  As I got used to his new neighborhood, I also started to make new friends.

One block away was my new friend Jessica’s house.  We would play downstairs in her basement for hours.  Our favorite activities were playing “business”.  We developed our own business and took turns being customers to each other so we could sell things and run the cash register. (That was our favorite part!)  We also set up a school and took turns being the teacher and student. This came very naturally to both of us because both of our parents were teachers.  We would pass out papers (extra math worksheets and color pages that I had gotten from my teachers at school) and teach on her small chalkboard.  Our favorite thing to do at Jessica’s house was to play “quizzard” which was the Sale of the Century board game.  Jessica enjoyed playing, for the most part, but she had to be the host of the game because she knew all the questions an answers. She loved to reveal all of the prizes that we had won by the end of the game.

As we grew up and went through middle school, high school and college we remained very close friends.  As we got older we started to spend the night often, sometimes camping in a tent in my backyard. When we got our driver’s license she was the one who had a car first so we loved to go to the mall, visit friends and “cruise the loop”.  We created so many memories by being in chorus, cheerleading, musicals, show choir and hanging out with our great group of friends.

 I remember her beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous thick, curly hair. She had a laugh that would make me laugh even harder.  She was such an intelligent, goofy and fun loving person.  I am so thankful that I had such a great friend in my life!Jessica taught me to live each day to the fullest and losing her reminds me to love, respect and cherish family and friends in my life.

Ten years ago today, I lost a wonderful friend.  I really miss you Jessica!

Slut Biatch.  That’s how Jessica and I became friends.  Who or what is Slut Biatch you may ask.  Slut Biatch was this little doll I had in the 10^th grade.  She was a little one inch cupie doll.  She wore a little orange and black crocheted outfit and she hung from my book bag.  Jessica was infatuated with Slut Biatch.  I was thankful to Slut Biatch because she brought Jessica and I together.

Jessica had beautiful blue eyes, thick dark curly hair, which she hated, and olive skin.  I can still picture her with braces and then her pretty straight smile after they came off.

She had an infectious laugh and might have been as weird as  me.   On my 16^thbirthday she made flyers with a swimsuit picture of me that said, “Sweet 16 and never been kissed” and posted them all over the school.  She made me laugh, everyday.

Jessica and Melissa dress up for 80's night in the summer of 1999.

We were in cheerleading, showchoir and musicals together.  We spent many hours at each other’s houses.  After graduation, Jessica headed to the University of Nebraska and I ended up in L.A.  The last time I saw Jessica was in Tonya’s basement Christmas of 2000.  That’s the last time both of us were home in Sioux City.

In the next several months, Alison, Dawn, Morgenne, Tonya, Jessica and I planned a trip to Las Vegas at the end of July 2001.  I even made ‘Vegas Baby 2001’ shirts for us all to wear while to  the NSYNC concert we’d all be attending.But tragically, Jessica never got to wear her shirt.  She was killed in a car accident the weekend before we were going to go.  I put the shirt I had made her in her casket, she was so excited to go on the trip.

Her mom still wanted us to take our trip since Jessica would have wanted it that way, so we did.  While we were all still in shock over the loss of our friend, but we still managed to act ridiculous and have a good time.  Jessica was there with us, we could feel it.

From that moment on, we knew how important friendships were and how fast they can be taken away.  We never take one another for granted now and we know we will always be friends, no matter what.  And when we all meet Jessica once again someday, I know it’ll be just like old times, with our group reconnected once again.

Jessica died 10 years ago today but her memory definitely lives on in the five of us.