Earlier this month, my daughter had a 4th-grade writing assignment to define what friendship meant to her.
It reminded me of my blurb in my 5th-grade yearbook answering a similar question– “What is a friend?”
My answer at the time, “Someone who listens to your problems”.
The answer feels a bit telling of my 10-year-old self and to be honest reading it all these years later makes me cringe every.single.time. Even typing that out that makes me cringe– because if we are being honest, that is the textbook definition of a therapist, not a friend–ha!
Sure friends help each other problem solve and listen, but friendship is so much more than that– and I want my children to know that. A life lesson that I think for me, took some time to fully grasp.
I let her write her essay based on some of the truly incredible little girls she is friends with and then we read it together.
Not once did she echo anything similar to my childhood answer. I breathed a sigh of relief and felt a wave of overwhelming pride wash over as I read her talk about the importance of kindness, laughter and supporting/cheering each other on (YES! THIS!).
Her description immediately made me think of 3 of my best friends.
20+ years of friendship and so many crazy days and nights.
Our friendship looks very different now than it did all those years ago because as adults we all lead very different (busy) lives. Today we all live an hour or more away from each other (one of us lives hundreds of miles away. Not that we’re done campaigning for her to move back) but they remain my bestest because they are all that Delaina wrote about in her essay and more.
With them, weeks, or sometimes months can go by without seeing or talking to each other– connected by just a few random (sometimes REALLY random) texts in our group text– and yet– somehow we always eventually pick up right where we left off.
We laugh about the past (like my complete disregard for sunscreen, exhibited below– OMG!) and joke about the future and growing old (with tons of sunspots, obvi).
We’ve argued and made up like family, celebrated the many highs of adulthood- like marriages, births and new jobs and have also comforted each other through some of the unfortunate lows.
For us, despite the distance and the busy days, we know we can always count on each other for brutal honesty (no, going grey is not a good idea), encouragement to take chances when we’re doubting ourselves or when we need that extra vote to buy the shoes…
ALWAYS buy the shoes …or dress, or top… you get the point.
We share a common thread in being shopaholics.
We’ve also been known to buy the exact same outfits– on purpose. Maybe because one half of us are twins– but I digress.
No matter what we confide in eachother– there is never any judgment.
Together we are our truest versions of ourselves– Sometimes dorky. Sometimes sappy. Sometimes crazy– and it always feels like home.
That is the power of friendship that I hope all of my kids experience a million times over.
– This sponsored post was written in partnership with Friendship Dairies –
The below video is so sweet. I dare you not to tear up.
Wouldn’t we all love to do this to celebrate and honor our closest friends?
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& use the hashtag #ThePowerOfFriendship
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