Childhood friends are the best, and I'm lucky to have a buddy named Donovan who's been with me since I was born, as our parents were friends before either of us were born. We never did anything too crazy, we just did simple stuff like playing sports and video games, and it made us super close over the years.

Donovan and I have been friends since we were little. We got along so well because we both loved sports and video games. We loved to box in his garage, even though I’m not big into boxing or wrestling. We'd put on our boxing gloves and we usually played games of tap out. He was always stronger than me, but as the saying goes: the bigger they are, the harder they fall. I also had the advantage that I am quick and nimble and could squeeze out of a lot of sticky situations. It was good fun, and we'd laugh a lot while doing it.

Football was another game we loved. We'd go outside and either run some plays or see how far we could throw it to each other. Sometimes when running plays, we would be on the same team or one of us would be on offense and the other on defense. Me and him have always roughed around, so we never played two hand touch rules, we would just full on tackle each other. It was much easier for him to tackle me, and a lot of times I would resort to tackling his legs so he tripped.

Sometimes we would switch to video games. Our favorites were Call of Duty and Fortnite. A lot of times playing these games would just end up in more boxing because we would always make each other mad with trash talk and then we would go back to boxing.

One thing that we do not do anymore that I miss is lightsaber battles. We used to turn off all the lights and have lightsaber battles, acting as if we died if we got stabbed. This is probably where we got hurt the most because we didn’t hold back when swinging these sabers. One time I got stabbed in the eye, but I didn’t mind and just went and checked my eye in the mirror and then kept on going when I saw it was fine. The best was when we went outside onto his lawn and we would do a dive and roll to evade attacks, it was great fun.

Donovan and I also tried all sorts of other games, like chess. I know that I was better than him, but I don’t think that either of us were actually all that good. I am way more patient than him though, so towards the end of the game he sometimes just started doing dumb moves when he knew he couldn’t win.

Our friendship was more than just games, though. We were there for each other when things got tough. We'd help with homework, listen when things weren't going great, and celebrate each other's successes, like when he joined the Clinton High School football team. Our friendship meant a lot to us and our families, and my family treats Donovan like he was part of my family, and his family treats me like I’m a part of theirs.

As we grew up, our friendship hasn’t change much. We still enjoyed playing sports and video games together. Me and Donovan haven’t seen each other much recently, but we still talk often.

In the end, my buddy Donovan and I have the best times doing simple things like playing sports and video games. These activities have made our friendship strong, and we've learned a lot along the way. Our friendship is built on having fun together, helping each other out, and being good friends, and that's why I believe we will still be great friends even when we both have separate lives and different careers.