Sophie (Chanko) Dare

Solid, lasting friendships are hard to come by, especially in the teenage/early twenties season of life that I've been in for years. I've had many friends come and go throughout the years, and I've never been popular by any means.

So, if you would have told me as a young teen that one of my best friends would be someone I met on Twitter who lives hours away from me, I would have never believed you! But, as you can imagine, that's where I'm at today.

I met my long-distance friend through our mutual favorite band, State Champs. She ran a fan account on Twitter, keeping fans updated with photos and videos from each show on their current US tour. I messaged the fan account about something, and eventually we hit it off. Then, we realized that she was only about four hours away from me in Ohio, and she wanted to travel up to Michigan to see another musical artist we both loved at the end of the month. This was in May of 2017 – I said I'd be going to the show anyways, we met up there, and the rest is history.

Now, we've gone to countless Champs shows together (of course!) in different cities, and shown each other around our respective hometowns plenty of times. We've met the other person's friends, ate at their favorite restaurants, and given away piles of clothing we don't want anymore, and that the other person could use! We even took our big trip to Los Angeles, California together, which was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience I could have never pulled off if it wasn't for my traveling buddy from Ohio.

It was honestly crazy happenstance that brought us together, and it's even more lucky that we're still within driving distance. I'm so, so thankful for her, and as soon as travel is allowed again, I'm sure we'll plan our next adventure very soon.

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