Some people are lucky to have one good person in their life. One good friend they can call when your world is flipped upside down. The friend you can call who makes you laugh your ass off at the dumbest things and you can just be yourself with no matter what. I don't have that one person. I have my people.
I've been gathering these people all throughout my whole life. People come in and out of your life at all different ages. It’s not every day that you meet someone at the age of 3 and end up in your 30's raising kids together. From playing in the sandbox in preschool to changing the diapers of our kids, Amy is my true day one. Friendship is funny when your young and you go through these stages of friendship where you cry at the thought of not having a weekend sleepover or your grounded from your phone and can’t talk about the new song on fly 92 or the cute boy who showed up in your classroom in the 4th grade. Time changes people change and you grow apart. It’s rare you keep a preschool friendship forever. For some though, the force is stronger. Amy and I have an internal connection that for years was gone not even a hello or a friendly wave. It was like we didn't even exist in the same world let alone the same town. Years of each other’s lives were lived separately and we survived without each other. What never changed was the friendship we once had at 3 years old, playing in that sandbox. There isn’t a week that goes by that we don’t see each other and a rare day that passes without texting one another. We plan crazy insane adventures just the two of us with 4 or more kids in tow. We shake our heads and think what the hell were we thinking but we laugh through it, take tons of pictures of the kids and genuinely enjoy every second even the chaotic ones. Amy is my day one
Everyone should have a friend that will never let you fall. A friend that if you need something and she's able to give it to you she will, she's got the couch to crash on or the ear to listen with. The one who tells you the REAL truth and there is never going to be sugar on it because if she doesn't like what she's hearing about the shit you’re doing with your life she's going to let you know. Jamie is the real deal. Jamie and I met in high school through a friend probably in a pot filled car or at a party at the turnaround. I honestly couldn’t tell you the day it happened; high school is foggy when I look back but when I met her, I knew she was
someone I would know for the rest of my life. I have feared her in the backseat of a car headed over the trail to a U-mass party and I have had her shoulder to cry on when my life flipped upside down. She never lets me fall, not drunk at a party and not in life. We can talk on the phone for two hours or two minutes and it always stays the same. When my life got crazy Jamie was right there to remind me of the bad ass that I am and no one was ever going to let me believe otherwise. A friend through thick and thin and someone who makes me laugh my ass off every time. Jamie is the Real Deal.
The force that pushes people to be in their life is real and it is unstoppable. Sometimes they are there every day in one chapter of your life and others they just make guest appearances, but you know no matter what they are always there to make you feel calm. The one who is always telling you it’s just a bad day not a bad life. To go get some fresh air, take a walk, ground yourself and everything will feel better in the morning. It sounds so cliché but Erin is my namaste, she is my calm. I can be rattling off the deep end about work or the kids or what a mess I have of a life and she makes me feel like I have it all together. She feels everything I'm feeling truly and genuinely with her whole heart. She's the girl you remember on Saturday at church a few pews away sitting with her sisters and her mom that you just felt a connection with even though you didn’t know her. Erin has been the one who drove me two hours to see my mom after they moved to another state and I was too afraid to drive alone. She took the whole day round trip just to bring me to my Mom so I could see her and hug her, I needed my Mom and she brought me to her. Erin is the friend that is literally always a phone call away and understand all my crazy quirks and loves me unconditionally. I feel the same way about her. She makes me want to be calmer, she's spiritual and has this magical way about her that I feel like she could turn a stone into a piece of gold.
When I'm with her I feel calm and happy and giddy inside and I love to make her laugh and in turn make myself laugh. She is motherly and crazy and so incredibly smart about so many things I don’t even understand yet. Erin is my namaste.
Some people you meet in life and you wouldn’t imagine in a thousand years that you would end up being so connected to them. When I was 20, I met a little girl just 9 years old who almost lost her mother. She had already lost a father and was about to experience so much more tragedy than any of us had ever known. She was fragile and innocent and I had no idea at that moment how important she would become to me. 15 years later she is still fragile and sweet and misunderstood sometimes. The friendship that we have created is shatterproof. Renee is my unbreakable. 11 years is a decent size age gap, 15 years ago I wouldn’t be drinking a truly with the 9-year-old I saw in that living room that day but now I relate to that girl in so many ways. I love her spirit and her energy she brings when she is around and she always makes me want to snuggle her in a ball on the couch and rock her to sleep, because sometimes I still see that 9-year-old girl. My life is always ten steps ahead of hers, naturally we have a lot of years in between us. I was pregnant with Evelyn and Renee was there all the time rubbing my belly, waiting to feel her kick and just sitting with me on a Friday night.
The bond that grew between her and my daughter was special. She went off to college and I lived vicariously through her snap chat stories and Instagram posts. We connect on so many deeper levels from our abandonment issues, to the bad choices we make in guys and worrying that everything that is good will be taken away from us in the blink of an eye. We know the facts of life and that it’s not always rainbows and butterflies but as long as we are together, we know it’s going to be okay. “It's fine, I'm fine everything is fine.” I want to protect her form any harm and always keep her smiling because there is nothing I hate more than to see her cry or to be sad. I have a bond with her that no age difference can ever break. Renee is my unbreakable.
The friendships you have with people don’t always remain the same throughout the years, some grow and change and blossom into new types of friendships than how they originated. As we evolve and change in our lives so do our relationships with people. Some friendships make it through the transitions in life and some don’t. I met a girl in high school who I found to be a blast to be around. She was loyal, funny and quirky. She could make you laugh and she was always the life of the party. I have been fortunate enough to walk through life since high school with her close by my side and honored to be the one she chose to be her Maid of honor on her wedding day. We have had some of the best times and also times where I never thought our friendship was doing to survive the storm. I have never stopped loving this friend no matter what the weather and her loyal ways has never let our friendship fall apart. Morgan is my true blue. Morgan's dad would always tell us that we met when we were little playing in the sand at the Clarksburg state park, neither of us remember this but I like to think it’s when the universe first placed us into each other lives.
I’ve watched her blossom and grow in so many ways and I have never been prouder of anyone than I am of her. She inspires me every day that it’s never too late to have everything you sought after in life if you work hard to get it. Morgan is the one who is there to show you the movies you probably would have never known existed that can completely change your outlook on life. She will make you sit through a thousand horror movies and yell at you every time you take your eyes of the TV and are not following the script. I can call her and talk to her about anything and everything, and I know even if she doesn’t come right out and say the words, she is ready to come through the phone and ring my neck or is pleased with what she is hearing. I started to lose myself in the last year and she reminded me of the person that I am. Friends who remind you how far you’ve come and not how little you feel like you have accomplished are the kinds of friends every person should have. The ones who forgive, communicate, and never stop loving you and being proud of you are pretty special. Morgan is my true blue.
Okay, now I want to make something very clear because I'm sure some people are scrolling and wondering where their part in the story is and why they don't have a blurb describing how important they are to me. It does not mean you don’t matter. It just means I chose five of these people to focus on at this very moment in my life. I am so fortunate to have an abundance of people in my life who have made an incredible impact on me and I could write for pages about each and every one of you but some would lose interest along the way and the message would be lost. Friendship is a gift. No matter if you have one really special one or six or seven, it is something you need to cherish and water every day that you can. It can be an everyday conversation or a once-a-week check in. It is not about quantity, as I have grown to learn but more about quality. These people know me, the good, the bad and the ugly no matter how new or old they are. These are my core people and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for any of them. I was compelled to write this because some days I wonder “Do they really know how important they are to me?”
The one thing these friends all have in common is they all make me laugh, they make me smile, they make me happy and they help me to grow.
“Because of you, I laugh a little harder, cry a little less, and smile a lot more.” -Unknown
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