Mindfulness | Longterm Friendships

June 8th was Best Friends Day or something like that. Honestly, it was the rest of social media that reminded me that it was a special day! The biggest revelation to me post-college was that making friends as an adult is so different. When you are in school and even as a kid you tend to naturally make friends around you, as an adult I’ve pushed back against being friends with co-workers. I feel there needs to be a level of professionalism, and yet I have made great friends through my jobs over the years.

But the friendships I really rely on are my two oldest friendships, with my best friend from the 2nd grade and my sister. These friendships transcend the word friendship, these are family.

These two people have known me from my earliest days and understand me better than I know myself sometimes. My husband is probably the 3rd person on that list of knowing me the longest. And while I am married to him, Haley & Kendra are my best friends. 

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When you’ve been friends with someone for 28 years, either you dance alongside them or you roll you eyes every time they walk in the room. Thankfully, my best friends tend to dance alongside me and support me. We are a quirky bunch, as kids Kendra & I were obsessed with history & frequently re-enacted historical events on the playground and in our backyards. We loved reading American Girl, Harry Potter, and dancing to Backstreet Boys on the radio. We still love a good sing-a-long and always pick up where we left off.

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My sister and I had a different relationship, as one does with a sibling. We are good friends now but perhaps when we were younger we just needed more space between one another. Haley always has and probably always will be the person to ground me in reality. To this day, she is the one who gets me to think critically and realistically. She supports my creative ideas, no matter what. In many ways, we are opposites that balance each other out. And in this case, the space between us has drawn us much closer.