i thank you;; for your part in my journey.

I have spent countless hours thinking about my friendships. How many wonderful people have blessed me with being able to call them a friend. It's amazing to me how different and influential each person has been in my journey. I can pinpoint events in my life that have shaped me into who i am in this moment and almost all have been because of the wonderful support system i have been blessed to have. 

I have never once put boundaries or limitations on who i will love and let be apart of my life. I feel that if you have a connection with someone, a true connection, then age, sex, race, religion. . NONE of that can play a factor in having them in your life. Why is that so hard for people to grasp? Why do we limit ourselves on who we will let help guide us? Who we share our deepest feelings with? Who can make us laugh until our sides ache for hours? What makes us put walls up so that only certain people know the real true depths of our souls? 

My entire support system in this life is made of an amazing array of wonderful people. No two of them are the same. I have friends who are decades older than me, years younger. Some who are living careless and carefree. Others who are beaten and broken down beyond my comprehension. 


But i love them all the same. &, as far as i know, they love me. 

That is what is important. The love that you have and share for each other.  

What a life it must be to limit yourself to not allowing certain people in. You miss out on the opportunity to know someone who may be able to save your soul, or someone you can go out with and have an amazing time, forgetting all of your adult responsibilities. Sometimes we are even lucky enough to have those people who can do all of that for us and so much more. If we limit ourselves we may never know what it's like to be one hundred percent loved. 

Some of my greatest friendships are those I have made with people who, at first glance, may seem like they are worlds apart from me. They may seem to have lived a life incomparable to mine or in a different place and time. Luckily I have allowed them to be apart of my life and I have been greatly rewarded because of this. I have been their shoulder as they have been mine. I have been the cause of wonderful laughs and they have made tears stream down my face from laughter. I have been able to carve out a small place in their hearts and a piece of my heart is forever theirs. 

I think relationships are the most important piece of life. We are so bogged down with mundane tasks. We allow ourselves to become "too busy" and let friendships fall to the waist side. But when we leave this world, we take nothing. . but we are able to leave behind a love and friendship in the hearts of those who are still here. We have the ability to make the most of life by surrounding ourselves with people who we can lift up, love, care for, laugh with and grow with. 

I am not the same person I was at thirteen. I have become a woman I am proud of. The road was not always the smoothest but i have always had a support system who has pushed me, guided me, and loved me unconditionally. While these people are not my blood;; they are my family. Some of the friendships i still hold so near and dear i made when I was nine, thirteen, sixteen. . others have stepped into my life in the last several years and found a permanent place in my soul. I love them all differently and equally. 

Sometimes I believe my greatest attribute and fatal flaw is my heart. Once I love you, I will never give up on you. I believe all love is and should be unconditional. While friendships are not always easy and life can become busy, hectic, go in different directions, people can move states and hundreds of miles away. . . once you love someone enough to consider them your friend, how can you ever stop?