This week’s Girls on the Run lesson really struck a cord with me – I don’t write much about my coaching experiences but I do love my girls – all 36 of them even though they can be a bit crazy (20 on Mondays and 16 on Tuesdays). There are so many days when I wish I had these lessons when I was younger, even now, they’re still valuable to me twenty years later.
This week we talked about choosing our friends and why it’s important to surround yourself with people who love you for you and don’t expect you to change.
For the longest time, I compromised myself for my friends. I picked people who didn’t support me or my decisions. It doesn’t matter if the life choices my friends make are wrong, the best you can do is say “hey, that’s probably not the best choice. Here’s why…” and if they heed your comments then hoorah! If not, be there when the decision falls through.
So many people throughout my life have come and gone, often through no fault of our own – people change, times change and life moves on.
Take my best friend from 2nd grade, my friend Chris – no matter how long we go without talking, I still consider him my best friend because I know I can always, always count on him for advice, an ear, or a nice strong beverage (he’s an amazing bartender outside of Boston now) and the same goes for me.
Or like the friends I made in high school, we’ve ebbed and flowed. High school was hard. So very hard for me on a social spectrum. Transferring to three high schools in four years made it hard to make great friends, and it made it hard to keep my old friends since they were so far away.
{my two college besties – TLB and Sarah. Booze cruise circa 2006 – the year of bad choices…whoops?}
Moving on to college, it took a couple years but my closest friends are girls who live on opposite coasts. Who call just to say hey. Who remember birthdays, and send cards when loved ones pass, and who still to this day share secrets. They’re like sisters to me and have never once told me to change anything from the way I dress, to the boys I dated back in the day.
Lesson learned, often the hard way, surround yourself with those who enhance you, who make you laugh til you cry, who are there for you when you need them, and who accept you for you no questions asked.
Share your favorite best friend story below!
