Let's be best friends!!!

Okay the next thing that I really think has had an impact of my self confidence was my friends. I am not going to spend your valuable time to write out every person that I have ever called friend. It is just too ridiculous and I am not going to go on and on about the people that I love. Plus I wouldn't be able to talk about everyone and that really stinks. I have wonderful friends. I feel so blessed to have such great friends. Now that I have told you what I am not going to do, how about I tell you the game plan. Let's talk about some of the stages of friendship and the things that I have learned from my friends. 

I have had a lot of friends in my life. Some of them have come and gone. Most of them will always be my friends. No matter how far apart we are we will always be friends! 

During the early years of school I had a lot of friends come in and out of my life. I jumped in and out of friend groups week to week. A group of girls in my 5rd grade class started burn books. I quickly Aline's myself with a group of girls that did not participate. I thought that was pretty horrid so I started writing down nice things about people and the rest of the girls followed suit.  Man it was a mess for a few months. Everyone was trying to find out what was written in the burn books. On the other hand, we openly told people what we had written. It was nice and everyone enjoyed hearing the positive things we noticed. When our teacher found out about the books I still got called down the the principal's office and had to show my book and what was written. The others girls got in trouble and I got a stuffed whale! From these friends I learned that I wanted to be friends with nice people. Even if it isn't popular it always wins out in the end. Be nice! 

In middle school, I joined a group of friends. It was decided that pony tails were too preppy and skater shoes were the only proper attire allowed for our friends. Hahaha Now I have always had a tendency towards skater shoes because honestly they are super comfy and I just like them.  However these weren't really long lasting friends because the friendship was based off of shoe choices. I didn't know them and they didn't know me. Which is super sad. We were situational friends. All of us in this group didn't fit the "norm" and thus we sought safety with each other. Truly the idea of a norm is total hogwash, but I didn't know that then. 

From these friends I realized that I didn't want to limit myself. I didn't want to belong to any group that gave qualifications and I just like to be myself. Skater shoes and all! ;) 

(Totally had a pair of these! Loved them!) 

I spent alot of time in high school telling my friends no. No let's don't do that...because it is a bad idea. No I don't want to. No...no...no. Looking back there were a few times that my Motherly instinct was helpful and stop us from just wasting time and money on things that were really dumb, but mostly I was probably annoying. 

Be smart. Don't do anything that is dangerous, but don't be that person that is so worried about everything that you won't do anything. It is a balance for sure, but it is worth finding. Once we were having a sleep over and we decided to look at the stars from the roof of my friends bedroom. We all climbed out and sat on the roof. I was cold and I asked for someone to grab my socks. One girl was still in the room, she grabbed a pair of socks and tossed then out to me. I didn't catch them...they fell off the roof on to the ground. hahaha We go caught on the roof, because of those socks. Dang socks! It was hilarious! 

The other thing I learned during this period is expressed well by owl city and Carley Rae Jepson "we don't ever have to try, it's always a good time". I spend hours and hours with these people doing all kinds of things that shouldn't be fun, but there were. We had "slipper fights" which is pretty much what it sounds like. You just kind of slap at each other with slippers. I have no idea how this came to be but it was so funny! I went to prom with some of these friends. We spent about 20 minutes at the dance then  bailed. We went home and made pudding, played apples to apples, and joked around for hours! It was awesome. It was so fun and it only mattered that we were all together having a good time. It doesn't matter how long we are apart when we get together things are always fun!

The most important thing I have learned is to open up. When I left for college I went alone. My Dad dropped me off at the airport, hugged me, and said "go to class and don't talk to boys". Haha I was nervous. I didn't have any friends, but I kept telling myself I would find some fiends. Well I did! They have made all the difference in my college career. We have pretty much done everything together and have made tons of memories. At first we were good friends because we were all in the same situations, but soon we started to open up to each other. We started to talk and talk about real things. All of the people that have influenced my life have done so because they were willing to share parts of their soul with me and I likewise shared with them. Don't be afraid to open up and let people see your struggles. It will bring you closer together!  I just love you people! Have a lovely day/weekend/year/life! Thank you for being my friends! We couldn't do this alone! 

Here is my challenge this week, reach out to someone who has touched your life!