For those of you who know me, you know my deep love for "The Bachelor" franchise. Over the course of the past 19 seasons that I’ve watched, I can honestly say that the show has never moved me to tears until this past week’s episode of "Bachelor in Paradise."
Don’t worry, I am not going to recap the entire episode (you can always just go to my Twitter to see that). But, I do want to touch on the scene where Kirk breaks up with Carly. The breakup itself was not what brought me to tears, as much as I liked the pair together. It was when Carly ran to her best friend Jade and Jade yelled, “I’m here!” as they sobbed together on the beach I shed my first tears over "The Bachelor."
In the friendship department, I consider myself incredibly blessed. I know that if I were ever to have my heart broken the way Carly’s was, I have seven people on speed dial that I consider my best friends.
Seven may seem like a lot to some people, but because each of my best friends is so uniquely different, grouping them all together in one category seems strange to me. With some of my best friends, we talk every single day, whether it is through snapchat, Twitter or a group Facebook message that has been going on for more than two years. But, for some of my other best friends, it has been several months since we last saw each other.
People often ask my why I continue to watch "The Bachelor," considering the relationships never seem to last. Besides for the obvious entertainment, I keep coming back because I believe that even if the romantic relationships do not endure, the friendships that develop right in front of our eyes are always inspiring. I feel like "The Bachelor" redefines stereotypes of women every time two contestants from the same season become best friends. If two girls (or guys) can look past the fact that they are dating the same person, ultimately fighting to win their attention and still form a lasting friendship, the show is obviously good for something.
"The Bachelor" and my friends are not correlated at all. None of my friends have ever dated the same guy I was dating and none of my friends have ever looked for love on a television show, but all I could think about when I saw Jade and Carly run to each other was my seven best friends. Because even though we are thousands of miles away in distance, and months away before seeing each other next, I take comfort knowing that I have seven sets of arms to run to if a guy ever broke my heart, seven people to marathon the "Twilight" series with anytime I’m sad, seven faces to take selfies with when I want to post an Instagram picture with no real excuse to, seven voices to sing along with in the car to Hillary Duff and Aaron Carter, and seven names on my favorites list to text anytime I just need some extra TLC. And that, is my personal form of true friendship.
[Love you, Katie, Samantha, Julia, Alyssa, Rachel, Sarah and Jillian]
