Friends - Both Old and New - I Love You All!Sidetracked Sisters

My BFFs

Are you the type of person that has lots of friends around you or just one or two good ones? Throughout my life, I’ve had a few different people that I considered my good friends.

When I was little, there was the neighbor I played Barbies with almost every day. We’d also walk across the street to go to Dairy Queen to get our treats. I remember spending hours and hours with her playing and having sleepovers. It was so much fun, but we were young and didn’t have deep, dark secrets to share.

When I was around 7 years old, we moved away from that neighborhood and I had to branch out. I remember watching the neighbors playing outside and I was so jealous. There were 4 young girls next door and I wanted to join them so much, but I was too shy. Mom then forced me to go outside and join. As a result, a new friendship was born. I was still great friends with my old neighbor, but now my circle was expanding.

As I write this, I realize I’ve neglected to mention the friend that I grew up with. She and I shared a playpen and bottles during our joint family camping adventures. No matter what other friends I had, she was always who I thought of as my best friend. She and I each had our own group of friends, but still would frequently come together and spend lots of time together. We had sleepovers, played duets together, taught Sunday School together, worked together, etc.

My circle expanded yet again in high school and I had another best friend that had been a cheerleader with me from middle school on. After high school, we all went to college in Eau Claire together. I roomed with my childhood friend initially but in the end, all the Beaver Dam girls lived together.

One thing all these friendships had in common up to this point is that as I got older, the more important these friendships became. The problem was that they also became harder to maintain as we all moved away from each other and began our own lives.

I could continue on and talk about my friends through college and into my first job, but I’ll skip ahead and bring us to the present. My BFFs. There are two incredibly special ladies in my life that I would trust with my soul (granted my family is right alongside them too). These two are not blood but they are truly my sisters. Again, we have the problem of having our own lives to maintain and that may keep us from getting together as often as we like, but that is where we need to work at friendships. Things that are worth having require work. If you want to have a friend, you need to be a friend. Any relationship that you want to have work will require time, patience, love, communication and understanding.

So – here is to all my friends – both old and new. I love you and thanks for being part of my life!!