grateful for friendships

i have been wanting, for a long time, to write a post thanking people for being my friends. but i am so worried that i will forget someone, that i am not going to name any specific friends, and instead i am going to say ... you know who you are. 

having friends that you can have open conversations with is the most important thing in the world. there is nothing better than the relief of sharing your story with a friend who doesn't judge. 

thank you to the friends who listen to me without judgement. it took a very long time, many many many years, for me to find you, and i appreciate you very much. 

having someone just listen to me, or even just be there when i am down is an amazing thing. i spent so much of my life feeling alone, and now i have an incredible group of friends who have stuck by me throughout everything i throw at them. 

when i was starting grade 9, i had a goal to make friends with every single student in the entire school. 500 friends. that was my plan. but getting to know everyone meant not truly getting to know anyone. i am incredibly lucky that over the last 10 years, i have developed incredible friendships that are true, meaningful, important, and unlike anything i have ever experienced before. 

my friends are my family. they are the people that i turn to for love, support, and understanding. and i hope that i am to them what they are to me. and then there are the family members who have become true friends.

there was a long period of my life where i felt very lonely, and very alone. and it took a lot of encouragement for me to reach out to people to make friends. and since then, my corner of the forest has become very crowded and lovely. and i will even venture to other parts of the forest. 

there's the friend who is there to tell me to stop beating myself up, the one who gives me pragmatic advice when i am sure the sky is falling, the one who listens and says "yeah, that sucks dude," the one who gives me hugs and cuddles, the one who sends me cyber hugs, the friend who knows when to make a smart ass comment to make me laugh, the one who will meet me at the very same restaurant every time partly because it's delicious and partly because i know how to get there and where to park, the friend who knows when to side with me and when to play devil's advocate, the friend who listens without judgement, the one who is there at 3am when i can't sleep and neither can she ... i could go on and on about my amazing friends. but since most of you are reading this, i am simply going to say thank you for being my friend. 

and finally, you know who you are ... 

be kind to yourself, and to your friends, 

xoxo

ps. This post on brene brown's website is awesome:
http://brenebrown.com/2014/04/08/daring-interview-series-meet-gavin-aung/

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