Feel Good Fridays--Friendship

I love linking up to other people's blogs and thought I'd start hosting my own link ups. I wanted something I could do weekly, but also something that jives with how I try to live my life while helping connect others who might feel the same so I came up with Feel Good Fridays. This is a place to post something that makes you feel good in your life and our first Friday link up is about friendship.

I used to work in a high school for pregnant and parenting teens. Loved it. Was devastated when my position was cut although it did free me up to move to GA with Paul, get married, have a baby, etc. The one thing that always broke my heart was that the girls NEVER had any female friendships. If anything they had frenemies and I constantly heard them talking about how this girl back stabbed this girl, or slept with this one's boyfriend, etc. They saw no value in female friendship. Myself, on the other hand, see immense value in female friendship. It's something I pride myself on...having long term friends. For the most part, if you and I are friends then we are friends for life. We may not talk every day, but when we see each other it's like no time has passed. And I've also learned the value of letting go of those friendships that may be aren't the best for me for whatever reason.

This week I wanted to high light some of my amazing friends and I hope you'll do the same in the link up. How often do we brag about the friends that we have. We may assume they know how much we love them, but how often do we tell them? And in the interest of space this is going to be a short list out of a much greater list. I have too many female friends that I love to list them all here unfortunately.

Kristy B--Kristy and I went to elementary, middle, and high school together. We were in the same Brownie troop in 2nd/3rd grade, but did not get along until our 4th grade math teacher made us sit together. Ugh, right? It was the best thing that ever happened to me! We became instant best friends and spent the next 7 years of our lives glued to each other's sides. We drifted apart some in high school and then found our way back to each other in college and that's sort of been how we roll. We may not talk often, but we are still friends and when I was down in Florida last fall I probably saw Kristy more than any of my other friends. Her and her husband are amazing people and I feel so blessed and lucky that we have maintained our friendship after all these years. Almost 30 years of friendship. Crazy.

High school--Jen C, Amanda, Katie, Cory (among others) were my loves in high school. We were inseparable. Jen and I were the wild ones and we drug everyone else with us. Lots of adventures, many that I can't remember, and we still all talk and call each other friend to this day. Katie and Cory were just here with their daughters (wishing Jen and Amanda could've come as well) and we can't wait to see each other again.

My 20's--Melissa, Jen T, and Mary were my single partners in crime, along with my sister Karin, in our 20's. We went out every weekend. Every single weekend. We met boys, we had cocktails, we had sleepovers (yes, girls in their 20's still do that although maybe it's more someone is too drunk to drive home lol). I think about those days a lot. Melissa and Mary are both married now and Jen is going to be my sister wife in a few years. I wish we all lived in the same place so that we could grow our friendships as married couples, but I am happy that we still occasionally get to see each other. Mary let Em and I stay with her when we drove up to Baltimore to pick Paul up. And she even drove an hour and a half to come to the airport with us when he arrived home from Afghanistan. Even though we don't talk often I think about these 3 almost daily.

Valdosta, GA--When I moved to Valdosta to live with Paul to say I HATED it and was homesick would've been an understatement. I had no friends, no job, and pretty much sat at home all day until I met Emily at a Kappa Delta event. It was friendship love at first sight. Paul always jokes and says that we stalked each other before we went on our first friend date and he may be right. lol But through Emily I met all of the other amazing women I became friends with in GA (Brittany, Anne Marie, Beth Anne, Erika...) and who I'm still good friends with till this day. I only lived in Valdosta for 9 months and yet I became part of a phenomenal group of women. God certainly was smiling on me there and now I'm trying to get my mom to move to Valdosta. I think she'd like it plus it'd give me extra chances to visit. Not sure if we'll ever move back to GA, but I'm trying to convince everyone to move with us to TN. I also have to talk about Chelsea and George. George was Paul's roommate when we met and even though I met Paul right on the heels of him breaking up with another Jen he was dating who was friends with Chelsea and George I'm pretty sure they love me more. Chelsea and George are stationed in Japan right now, but I have my fingers crossed that we end up at the next base together.

I wish I had room to talk about all the amazing people in my life in this post. Of all the thinks I am thankful for friendship is one of the most important to me. I believe when you have good friends you work hard to keep them. I can't wait to read about all your friendships!