Things You Want Wednesday - Good Friends

No, not THOSE Good Friends! Scary box though, isn't it? (that one was for you, Angi!)

As we get older I think we tend to start underestimating the importance of friends. I know I have, anyway, especially as I've made big life transitions after high school: going to college, getting married, getting a real job, having a baby, all those things that take up so much mental and emotional energy and leave little room for other aspects of life.

I had forgotten how much fun I used to have with my BFFs in high school. The late night conversations that started off as silly thoughts, turned to serious conversations about the meaning of life and the obstacles in our paths, and eventually devolved into fits of giggles and snorting, the kind of laughing where you laugh so hard that no noise comes out and your sides start to hurt from the effort. I need more of that in my life. More people who bring out that side of me, the kind of friends that I can relate to, the kind that share my warped sense of humor and twisted way of looking at the world. And I'm very lucky to have found a few over the years.

Unfortunately, I've lost touch with most of them. I moved away, they moved away, we grew up and went in different directions.

I've found my way back to some of them. Haven't been so lucky with others. Girls can be really mean sometimes, that's for sure. Then there are the new people who have come into my life, friendships that I cherish dearly. Two of them are pretty much responsible for me deciding to take my new job :)

It's friends like these who make all the difference of the world. Of course I share everything with my husband - all of my hopes and dreams and skeletons in the closet, but sometimes you just need an outside perspective, preferably of the female variety. Someone who isn't family but feels like they could be. Someone to share inside jokes with. Someone who would drive hours from the top side of your state to come to your baby shower and camp out on your living room floor and eat cupcakes at midnight. Someone who will go with you on long road trips when your husband has too much going on to make the drive with you - I had SO MUCH fun with my friend in NJ, that it felt like being in high school all over again. Just without the bitchiness. OK, so maybe not completely without bitchiness, but at least it was a shared bitchiness :)

So that's what you want, more of these people in your life. It's good for the soul.