Sometimes when you hear someone’s voice, you form an early impression of their personality. Then you see them online and that impression shifts. That is exactly what happened with a colleague of mine. I joined the project during COVID, so everything was remote. We were on the same team but working on different things, so we never really interacted. I only heard her voice in a few meetings and later saw her on our weekly video calls. From that, I assumed she and I were completely different. She seemed lively, outgoing, and very friendly, and I honestly thought we would never become friends.

When people slowly started returning to the office, she joined a few months after I did, and that is when we actually began talking. We ended up working on the same tasks, leaving the office around the same time, and even taking the train together for part of the commute. If something happened at work, we would wait for the train ride home just so we could talk about it. That became our little routine, and after my other close friend moved to Texas, she became the reason I looked forward to going to the office.

People at work even started calling us twins. We thought alike, and sometimes others mixed us up, addressing me when they meant her and the other way around. She felt like a soul sister. And just like my other friend, she eventually moved away too, this time to Canada. But the time we spent working together, walking during lunch, laughing, and sharing those everyday moments still stays with me.