The most important thing in the world to me. To me friends aren’t just friends they are my family. When I care enough about someone to spend time with them I care about them enough to do anything for them. What a friend is to me has changed a great deal over the years (and even more so over the last five months). I used to think a friend was someone who I had something in common with who I would hang out with. Friends were people that I played lacrosse with, people I went to concerts with. Really though all of those people weren’t my friends. My friends were the ones who would meet me an hour early for practice to throw the ball around. Friends are the ones who would see me standing by the goal after practice and know that I didn’t have a ride home and get their folks to bring me. Friends were the ones who introduced me to new music and pushed their way forward through the crowd with me so we could get within arms distance of Nirvana. Friends are the ones who will drive two hours one way to pick you up after you get a flat tire and expect absolutely nothing in return – they are doing it because they hate the idea of you being stranded in life. Friends are the ones who will call in sick to work to come to the hospital when your parent is sick. Friends are the ones who stand up for you when someone else is trying to put you down. Friends are the ones who want nothing in return from you other than your friendship.
Thank you to those people in my life who have been real friends to me and I hope that those people who I value know how much I value them and their friendships. I am still learning but I hope to be as good to you as you have been to me. Thank you.