F is for Friendship

My shadow and my bestie's, out for a hike.

As an only child, I learned the value of friends at an early age. Without any siblings or cousins, I was "stuck" with my mother's friend's children, who were mostly boys a few years older than me. Sometimes they humored me and played Barbies, but when I went to school and had friends who were girls who liked the same things I did, I noticed! 

As I've gotten older, I've learned that what makes a friendship special is more about what it isn't than what it is. 

True friendship does not mean obligation. It means not worrying about how clean my house is (or isn't!) when she comes over. 

True friendship means not being afraid to ask for anything: someone to pick me up from a doctor's appointment, to curl my hair, to lend me a skirt, to help me move, to ___________(fill in the blank with anything!)

True friendship is like true love. It is true love, in its own form. There is no judgement, no jealousy, no "I told you so."

I don't mean to brag but I have a lot of friends. I've lived many different places and thanks to Facebook, I've been able to reconnect with a bunch of awesome human beings I would have lost track of otherwise. Earlier this year, I visited two different friends I hadn't seen in 20 years and with both of them it felt like no time had passed at all. 

I wouldn't be who I am without my friends. They've done and been everything for me that siblings would. I want to say that the difference is I get to pick my friends but that's only true to a certain extent. Sure I choose who I hang out with but there's a point where the friendship bond form and is unbreakable. Not all my friendships reach that point but a few have and I wouldn't do a thing to change it!