One day when I was in my late teens, I was on the phone with my grandmother from my dorm room. I told her that I needed to get off since I was meeting some friends. She expressed her surprised that I had any friends and said she was amazed that people actually liked me. I could hear the complete astonishment in her voice. Â I remember saying goodbye, hanging up the phone, and sinking onto my bed in tears. It is an understatement to say that my grandmother and I had a rocky relationship.
Friendships had been difficult for me when I was young. Chubby fizzy-haired girls who were not good at sports, and smart but not the smartest, did not have an easy path. I was bullied in school until I was able to skip a grade and enter high school early, which allowed me to leave my past behind and start over. I started to build close friendships, especially once I went away to college.
Someone told me that women with unique dreams often make women friends later in life. Perhaps because there were, when I was young, fewer women who dreamed of careers and lives beyond the limits of their family expectations. That aligns with my life experience. I know it can take a long time to build an old friend, but sometimes, we meet someone and know we will be friends forever. I am blessed to have friends I would give half my heart to save and know would do the same for me.
We each have concentric circles of friends, varying from those in our inner circle, to those we still love but are further from our intimate core. Each of these is a blessing in some way, bringing different perspectives and experiences to our relationship. Each enriches our lives in unique ways. Perhaps my grandmother’s words were a blessing and not a curse, telling me that my friendships were in my future. At least I can choose to remember her words that way.
May you be blessed with the love of friends.
I am blessed to call you friend.