Be Careful What You Wish For

Be careful what you wish for... you just might get it.

Did anyone else hear this expression all the time growing up? To be honest, I can't even remember who used to say it or in what context, but it has always popped back into my mind at the most (in)opportune moments. 

When I moved to D.C. last June, I was honestly petrified.  As my friend Kathryn put it, "You have to make ALL new friends!!!" And she was right. I had to make all new friends.  It was overwhelming, not because I hadn't done it before, but because I had done it before.  And it was hard.

When I moved to Baton Rouge for college, I knew exactly one other person from high school.  And we were good friends (still are) but not exactly as thick as thieves.  We have different interests and once we got to LSU, we were pulled into different directions with activities.  As it should be.  I've always been lucky to have a lot of different kinds of friends and I think that has enriched my life in multiple ways.  That said, college is sort of an easier place to start all over again in the friendship category.  There are countless clubs and organizations that people join just in the pursuit of finding common interests and establishing relationships.  Even still, I can remember feeling completely alone and sort of miserable for the first year of life in Baton Rouge.  It's not that I didn't make any friends, because I did.  Some of them even read this blog (shout out to Steph, Laura & Tiffany!). 

But I just felt like I wasn't busy enough my freshman year. And for some reason to me busy = good.  Last fall when my internship stopped and my classes started, I suddenly wasn't so busy anymore.  And I wished to be busy! To have friends and be busy!

  And guess what? I got what I wished for. 

I'm still not sure that I have an established friend "group" as I did in undergrad here in D.C. .  This is not LSU anymore and there's no clubs or sorority to fall easily into. But I do have friends here now!! And I'm so thankful for that.  But lately, I feel like I don't have time to hang out with them.  The schedule of work and school and trying to maintain a decent relationship with myself keeps me from having the wealth of time I once had to maintain friendships.  And frankly, it sucks.  My friendships are SO important to me.  With people near, people far away at home and in Louisiana, and with people i've met through blogging! And I feel like I'm slacking with all of them lately.

So, let me throw this out to all of you.  We are all busy!  How do you carve out time to maintain relationships, near and far?

Cheers on this Wednesday! It is almost the weekend and I intend to just keep chugging along...

I'm So Thankful for My Friends

Ever since high school, I've always been one of those girls who's had lots of different groups of friends.  I have varied interests, so this has followed me through high school into college and now beyond.  I am so lucky to have my friends.  They have been there for me in some extremely difficult circumstances.  They listen to me and love me despite my craziness.  I thank God for my friends every single day. 

Source

I thought I would make a list of some of my friends here and some of the categories they fit into.  This is in no way an all-inclusive list and the thoughts here are quite random.  I think maybe I will blog about other friends as their "categories" come to my mind.

Knows all the same pop culture references.

This title belongs to my friend Neri.  One time in high school, a teacher made some off-the-cuff remark like "it's not like anyone remembers the name of the prostitute Hugh Grant got caught with."  No lie, sitting right next to each other in that class, at the exact same moment in time, Neri and I both said out-loud "Divine Brown!"  Everyone looked at us like we were crazy.  And we kind of are. But Neri is the friend who always gets my pop culture references without prompting and vice versa. We share a common love/hate relationship with all the Kardashians.   We also have a bit of a friendly rivalry when it comes to SEC football.  Bless her heart, Neri is a Florida fan.

Knows too much for us not to be friends.

This one goes to my best friend Courtney.  I say this casually- but Courtney really does know pretty much everything.  She is that friend who gets all my family references without background stories.  I'm pretty sure she loves some members of my family as much as I do.  She also just gets me and I can be myself around her.  She is also one friend who reminds me never to give up. She understands my current state of cynicism but reminds me to be optimistic and always has faith in me and reminds me to have faith in myself.

Makes me feel like I'm not the only cynical one in the world.

Thank God for my friend Lauren. Just when I think I'm the most cynical person I know, I can call Lauren and have her agree with my cynical points.  And it makes us both laugh.  We are in the same boat of many of life's categories right now and it is such a comfort to me to have a friend who understands our stage in life and can laugh about it. 

Knows how to keep my cynicism in check.

My friend Kathryn keeps my cynicism in check.  She's the one who calls me pessimistic when I call myself realistic.  She reminds me that it is okay to love things like Disney World and have obsessions over nail polish.  She reminds me that I shouldn't be so hard on myself and other people.

Has extreme social networking/ blogging/ writing skills.

My friend Jenn has been blogging for longer than I've known her I think and I really admire her social networking and blogging and writing skills.  She is constantly connecting people on Twitter and never posts a blog that she hasn't put a lot of thought into. She is the ultimate social butterfly and I really respect that.  She can also always be counted upon for a twitter conversation or a West Wing reference.

Will always respond to my emails and texts during the work day.

My friend Emily is my partner in crime during the work day.  We are also very similarly minded about most political issues.  We are also not afraid to disagree with each other on political or life issues and we don't beat around the bush when it comes to expressing our opinions.  She is also just about as obsessed with blogs as I am and speaks blog language, if you know what I mean.

The true romantic.

My friend Rachel is a true romantic and does not make apologies for believing in romance.  She always believes in the good in people and in the good in the future.  She loves history and has a slight fascination with most of our founding fathers. 

Unabashedly loves bacon.

My friend Colleen absolutely loves bacon.  I mean, who doesn't love bacon?! Nobody I know!  We also share a common love of the television show Weeds and Ina Garten. If you need a laugh, you can contact Colleen anytime and she will oblige. 

Oldest friend.

My friend Jenny is my oldest friend.  We've known each other since I was 8 or 9.  She was and still is a trouble-maker and I love her.  Sometimes I wonder how she didn't get us into more trouble when I was a kid/ teenager? She definitely challenged my goody-two-shoes ways of life.  We've always had a bond but similar experiences in our young adult lives have bonded us more than ever. I am so thankful to have a friend who can understand what I'm going through better than anyone else because she has been through it herself!