friends

i'm not sure if i've ever written about this here but i figured i might as well. i had quite possibly the best group of friends ever from first through twelfth grade. i met these girls all at church and i'm pretty confident that if we would not have had that as our starting point, we would have not remained friends for as long as we have. {i should note that i'm still friends with all 4 of these girls, however with college and such we are not as close as we once were}

[ski trip sophomore year(?) 2003 maybe]

melissa, me & sarah

we are 5 very different girls and we definitely had our moments where we we fought and got mad at one another (i may have even pulled someone off of a top bunk bed at camp one summer...i am really really sorry about that one Lacey) i will admit that i was certainly not the easiest person to be friends with, especially during middle school (sorry about that one Sarah) but i like to think that God had a reason for the 5 of us to be such great friends. i think that i didn't fully appreciate the great friendship i had until about a year ago. all of the sudden i had this revelation about how super lucky and so very fortunate i was to have had such amazing friends during such an influential period of my life. i love that i was surrounded by girls who were such good influences on me and maybe the worst thing we even peer pressured one another into doing was trying to sneak into the dorms during rest time at impact. i know, we were such rebels back then. 

[winterfest maybe 2004?]

me, julia(not one the star girls...but i couldn't resist this picture), kari & lacey

[in a 15 passenger van going on a youth trip]

kari, melissa & i

once i got to college i really missed these girls, but i don't think i really recognized that i missed them until a little later. there was definitely a void in my life and all of the sudden i realized why. i missed (so very dearly) the close girly relationships i had with these ladies. not only did i miss hanging out at mcalisters with them well after closing time but i missed the deep conversations we had. i liked the fact that i never had to be ashamed of what i haven't done with a boy when chatting with them. (okay so that may sound a little weird cause it's not like i'm ashamed really...i just think that the word fits) it's really hard to find girls that you can discuss God-honoring relationships with. i feel like while i found some great friends in college, i was never completely honest with them. and i really wasn't as confrontational with them as i would have been with my best girls. and that's okay but at the same time it's totally not. and then i started missing being able to talk with other girls who were going through the same thing i was and girls that were desiring the same thing i wanted. i'm not saying that my college friends didn't want the same things that i wanted but they weren't going about getting these things the same way i would want/approve of. 

[late night at mcalister's 2006]

melissa, me & lacey

[high school graduation-2006]

kari, lacey & i

being really honest with friends is a tricky thing. i think it's an even trickier thing for girls. 
we don't want to feel judged or attacked but we need to be held accountable. we need someone to tell us that it's totally okay to feel uncomfortable but we also need someone to tell us when we're just plain crazy with our expectations. 
i think that i really underestimated my need for close female relationships. i mean it was just so great to have people that were at the exact same life stage you were. and people who  would give me honest advice, no matter what. {okay i might have been a little too honest with my advice sometimes. i'm not always the most compassionate person and my sympathy gene doesn't always kick in when it should...but the other girls were pretty great at this!} 

[reunion at kari's]

me, lacey, kari & melissa

[winterfest 2007]

sarah, lacey, me & melissa

sometimes i wonder if i would still have amazing relationships with these girls if we had all gone to college together. but then i think about how college is a time to grow and experience new things and maybe we needed some separation to really accomplish this. i know that we all need a reunion soon but i feel like the 5 of us are never in the same country, much less same state. but i do treasure each time we get to catch up now. and i love looking back at all the crazy camp pictures we have. 

melissa & i

i think if you met all 5 of us individually you would never believe that we were such great friends. but i'm so thankful that i have those girls. i know that while we might all be moving in very different directions, we will always be able to catch up and reminisce about the time we danced on cars in the parking lot after church one wednesday or sat at groucho's for hours or even that time we watched good burger on my 17th birthday...yup we were quite the wild bunch. 

[summer reunion at olive garden]

lacey, me & sarah

i think this post has started to drag on but i'm glad i got to express how much these ladies mean to me. maybe it's kinda sad that it took me so long to realize how amazing our relationships were but at least i finally figured it out!

[our christmas card picture]

sarah, me, kari, lacey & melissa