At six years old, I promised my best friend we would go to prom together. Twelve years later, on the night we were finally supposed to keep that promise, Mom locked my bedroom door and told me I could only go with him under **one condition**.

Then she revealed a secret that changed the way I saw our entire friendship.

Noah and I became best friends in first grade for two very important reasons: we both hated raisins, and we both loved dinosaurs.

Noah had Down syndrome, but that was never the thing I thought about when I looked at him.