A Tribute to My Girls

My friends and I are at the age when we are going to Sweet 16 parties practically every weekend, and tonight I was at one of those parties.

Going from middle school to high school was, well, difficult, to say the least. It still is tough at times, mostly because of how much I hate change (I'm working on it, I promise). It seems like everything is entirely different. Classes, people, scheduling, weekends, homework, friends, everything. But tonight I felt a little bit of the past at the party with us.


We sat around and talked, we danced, we sang, we laughed at each other, we laughed at ourselves, and we laughed at things that weren't even remotely funny. We had a genuinely good time. And it was in these moments, dancing as though nobody was watching, laughing so obnoxiously loud but not caring, that I realized how much these girls and I have been through together.

I've been together with some of these girls since elementary school, and some since middle school, and together we made it through all of the trials that came with our different phases. It was with these girls that I played tag on the playground at recess in elementary school, these girls who I studied and laughed with in middle school. We would find each other crying in the bathrooms at school, and immediately know what was wrong, we would comfort one another. We stayed up into all hours of the night giggling over magazines and boys, playing truth or dare, eating whatever we wanted at sleep overs.

We taught each other how to do cart wheels in the sixth grade when we decided that we were going to try out to be cheerleaders, we walked for hours together at Relay for Life all three years of middle school, we laughed until our stomachs hurt at lunch. We passed notes during boring classes, and we (accidentally) threw an open water bottle across the room in eighth grade Social Studies (maybe that's why the teacher didn't like me, heh heh), we were brutally honest with each other, and we cheered when casts finally came off.

We claimed "countries" when friends started to fight (I've been Switzerland since fifth grade. Switzerland is mine ;).), we went through phases when we listened to one song on repeat for months, we made countless "movies" in each others houses, each with countless costumes and plot lines.

Now, don't get me wrong, we've had our share of arguments, but we've always made it through them together. We've been furious with people that we haven't even met for hurting our friend, and we've seen each other's personalities change and develop, and we've learned to love each other for who we are at any given moment, not who we've been or who we'll become.

Together, we're cooky and crazy, we're loud and obnoxious. We're ready for anything, because when elementary and middle school brought us together, we were brought together for good. So, thank you to My Girls for being one of the few constants in an ever changing life <3

A Team Sport

I've just felt an immense urge to write about this, and I can't hold it back, so I'm just going to let my fingers fly across the keys, and let God lead them.

The above song, as well as this quote (from the To Write Love on Her Arm facebook page), popped up on my phone right in a row "I needed someone to tell me 'you're gonna get through this' . . . to mean it, to really want to help me." and I think that this is God speaking to each of us. We need to be there for the people around us. No matter how close we are to any given person.

I think that sometimes it can be easiest to forget to be there for the people who we are extremely close to. We just grow to expect things to be a certain way, and we don't think much of it. We expect everything in a usually optimistic person's life to be fine and dandy, and we tune out the negative complaints of a usually pessimistic friend because we think everything they are complaining about is really no big deal. But what if we listened? What if we honestly asked our friends how they were doing? Would we get the answer that we expected?

I don't know. I'm sure that sometimes we do get an answer that we would expect, but I'm also pretty sure that too often we would get an answer that we didn't see coming. Do we really know the people closest to us? Just knowing someones favorite color and shoe size, what makes them laugh and what makes them cry, doesn't mean a thing if they are dying inside and we miss it.

And sometimes we are sure that our friends would come to us if they really needed us, but I don't believe that that is always the case. Maybe they don't want to put more weight on our shoulders, maybe they don't want to show any signs of weakness, maybe they, as I had done for so long, thought that they needed to be perfect, and letting down their defenses was equivalent to messing up. We can't always trust that the people who we are closest to would come to us when they needed us.

There is another side to that, as well, though. When you are falling apart, and you feel as though nothing is ever going to go right in your life, talk to the people around you. Don't go through all of the pain in life alone. God put us here together for a reason, He didn't want us to live this life on Earth alone. And that brings us to another point, don't ever lose hope, because even when it seems like all is lost, God is still there, cheering you on, wiping your tears away, telling you that you can do it. We just need to listen.

Listen to your friends, and let your friends listen to you. This thing called life is a team sport.

Changing the Secrets

There's a website. Six Billion Secrets. sixbillionsecrets.com. And so many people who have written on that site are so alone.

It absolutely breaks my heart that so many people don't have someone to talk to, someone who can help them, who will be there for them. And a lot of people reading this blog post, or many of the secrets posted on that website will say that it's all melodrama. But I don't believe that. Yeah, maybe some of it is, but if that was your best friend, or son, or daughter, or sister, or brother, writing on that website, feeling those feelings, you'd want to help them, wouldn't you?

How have we let so many people feel so lost, so sad and upset? Maybe you are one of those people, asking yourself the same question. Or maybe you're like me, wondering how you, with a wonderful life, have overlooked all of that pain and sorrow in the people around you. Or maybe you fit into a completely different category. I just don't know where the happiness has gone. I'm not blaming anyone, because believe me, I know that it's not a choice you make to be unhappy.

So my challenge to you today is to go out and be that person that someone needs. Be the shoulder to cry on, the listening ear, the care that people are so desperately looking for. Do a few random acts of kindness. You may not be able to change the entire world, but each one of us has the capability to change at least one person's world. I'm going to try to think before I say, and try to always help people, because I might never know what else is going on in their life. Together, we can make happier secrets.

We Are Family

Yeah, I know, I just got that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day, didn't I? Well good, it's a pretty nice song to be singing for a long time.

So today was a very...confusing day. But no matter, we learn a lot on the most confusing days don't we? Anyway, a lot was going on, and a lot of it could have pulled me and my friends apart a lot, or possibly have hurt one or many of us. Despite the challenges that we were being put through, though, we stuck together, and I'm extremely proud of everybody today. One of my best friends in the world said something this afternoon that made me smile stupidly for such a long time. I was so proud of her, our whole group of friends, and the amazing bonds that we share.

"Our group is a family, and we stick together through everything." It may seem like a simple statement, but it really was a sign to me during a really cloudy day, both literally and figuratively. Her comment was so true, and it made me realize how truly awesome our friendships really were. We protect each other and stick together through thick and thin, and that's how it's always going to be, no matter what.

I thank God so, so much for these people in my life. They hold me up through so much, and are truly gifts from Heaven. God has already given us the tools we need to get through so much in our lives, and we don't even recognize them most of the time. So let's take at least a few moments today to thank God for the amazing gifts that he has given us.

Gratitude Journal-Day 1

Gratitude Journal-Day 1

So I'm going to start something new, and from now until Christmas I'm going to try and post about at least one thing a day that I'm thankful for.

I'm so thankful for my friends. All of them. I am in awe at what amazing friends God has given me. I have people who I can turn to about anything, people who I can always have a good time with. They genuinely care about me and they want me to be happy. I was standing in church this morning watching, listening, and singing along to many of my friends singing praise songs, leading our congregation in worship of the Lord, and realized how amazing they all are. This isn't the first time that I realized what wonderful people all of them are, it happens quite often. Even though I sometimes feel like there's nothing good going on, I should remember how amazing these people are. For a while I was having kind of a tough time with finding friends who care, and who want me to be happy, but recently God has given me some of the most amazing people ever.

I'm also thankful for the church that I am a part of, and my fellow Christians. I have been extremely blessed in the recent years with showers of love and care from people all throughout the church. My Christian faith has grown a lot in the past couple of years, and I have so many people who are growing with me and so many people who are leading us. It's through church that I met and became close to many of my best friends. God has been pouring out blessings through the church for me, and sometimes I don't even realize how amazing they all are until they're gone.

My family is always there for me, and I am extremely grateful for that. I know that I can always talk to anybody in my family, and even though we don't always get along, we love each other, and there isn't anything that I would change. It's simple, the way we care about each other, I am the oldest of three children, and though we have our arguments, I wouldn't trade them for the world. My parents always care about us, and always want us to be happy, and they are amazing parents.

There's a lot to be grateful for in the world, and sometimes I don't realize it, because sometimes I let my troubles cloud the way for them. I really am blessed in my life.