the importance of girlfriends
I am a firm believer in the absolute necessity of friendship. We weren't meant to be islands in the stream, or islands in ANY body of water for that matter. We were created for companionship, connection. And it seems the more friends I meet and kindred spirits I come across, the more I can't live without them.
I have been truly blessed in my life with some great friends (some of whom are family, for which I feel overly blessed), women who know me inside and out. True girlfriends are the ones who know my thoughts without my having to speak them; they know when to encourage me and when they're being called on for accountability; they can put me in my place without damaging our relationship, because there is so much love and trust; they're the ones who appreciate how we're different, and remain true just the same; they have shoulders I can cry on, love and understanding I can count on; they have had the guts to tell me the truth about my shortcomings, and then continue to stand beside me as I tried to grow.
Without girlfriends, who would we shop with for hours on end? Who would we watch girlie movies with? Who would we talk with until the wee hours of the morning? Who would help us eat an entire carton of mint chocolate chip ice cream after a bad day, or tell us the too-short haircut is still cute? Who would tell us to take off the black socks, to dump the overalls that went out of style a LONG time ago, not to eat the extra piece of cake, and that "of COURSE you could win American Idol!"? Who else understands the need for a new purse every couple weeks, the obsession with jewelry and flowers, the romance in every Sandra Bullock movie (except maybe Murder By Numbers), and the need to be thought pretty even on our worst days?
We may be vastly different in personality, style and hair color, but within every woman is knit a fabric of commonality, and a need to connect.
I've had the opportunity to know some amazing women in my lifetime. Without them I wouldn't have survived high school (Wendy, Kathy, Rachel); college (Darcy, Donna, Juanita, Melanie); China (Chrissy, Kimberly, Elaine, Carlynne, Tanya); or coming home from China (Mom, Amy). And in this new stage of life, the stage where I live in one place for longer than a year, I see new friendships developing, new friendships that will help carry me into the future (Emily, Gabbie, Darcy, Dori, Alicia, Cori). I know that we will develop our own history, probably sooner than we realize. We may not have what we had with old friends, but we'll have new experiences, things we don't have with those old friends. And pretty soon we'll be the ones talking into the night, laughing and eating too much chocolate together. I can't wait.
