You Got A Friend In Me

Living the life of a military spouse can be an amazing experience with the opportunities to travel the world. With every move comes the excitement of meeting new people and making friends. However, that can be equally difficult when you realize that you have friends scattered all around the world. In our entire lives we will make many friends; friends who are there to build memories with, friends who are there to help us through difficult times and friends who are there to teach us life lessons. All of those friendships are extremely important. Often times I find myself reminiscing about all of the friendships I have or have had. Sometimes I feel sad and other times I feel happy. But I always fee l thankful for each friendship I have formed. I can still remember my first real friendship; her name was Betty Jo. I remember we watched a lot of Zena the Warrior Princess and Hercules. We would pretend we were warriors and practice our fighting moves in the backyard in between playing with Barbies and singing the theme song to, “Cops” to the local police officer. That friendship ended like most do at such a young age, my family moved to a new town. Another deep friendship was with a young man named Cody. He was one of my neighbors and he helped me through some of my most difficult times as a young teen. His friendship was an escape from a lonely and dark home. Our friendship was a bright light to look forward to and when he was tragically killed in a car accident I struggled. I struggled hard with losing him but I also learned how strong I was. Later on I made some friends with this amazing girl who was the complete opposite of me. We had only one thing in common and that was a love for scary movies. She and I remained close friends for years and years. We managed to remain friends through moving to different towns and life changing events. I have so many great memories with her. I would say we are still friendly but not really friends anymore. Nothing crazy happened, no one wronged the other…we just drifted apart and now are strangers with many memories filled with lots of laughter. Sadly, as we grow and our lives change we can grow distant to our closest friends, but that is okay because it doesn’t make their friendship any less special. Then comes the friendships that teach you lessons, lessons such as, not everyone will say the same things to you as they will behind your back. That is such an important lesson to learn. It teaches you how much words can hurt and how important it is to be genuine. Some friendships will also change you in a bad way. Maybe you find a friend yourself being mean to people or doing activities you wouldn’t normally do. Those friendships usually end the messiest and can be one of the hardest to walk away from. But those friendships teach you that it is okay to walk away from someone who isn’t good for you or from someone who only encourages the worst in you. The new and adult friendships are one of the most different types of friendships. Those are the friendships that are solely based on mutual interests. They are generally more flexible because life gets busy and it’s much more difficult to find time to talk, let alone hang out. Those friendships teach you how to be patient and how to really treasure the memories you do make when you are finally able to hang out. The last important friendship is called your “lifer”. A lifer is someone who you know you will be friends with for your life. Not everyone gets to have a lifer and sometimes your lifer ends up not being in your life. What I have learned is that if you want to have long lasting friendships you must make an effort. If you have a friend who means a lot to you then make sure you reach out to them, even if it’s just to say, “I’m thinking of you and hope you are doing well.” Friendships can truly be the best things you can build and maintain. They can make such an enormous difference in your life and they definitely help groom you into the person you are supposed to be. To all of my amazing friends, thank you for all of the memories, laughter, tears and lessons. I would not be the person I am without each one of you; past, present and future! Xoxo Chelsie