For the longest time, I always felt lost. Constantly searching for consistency within my friend groups. I always had friends in my life that would be there for a couple of months at a time but never felt like I had found my people. I envied many people in high school. The people who never had to worry about their friend group crumbling before their very eyes. I watched this happen to me one too many times. I never fully trusted the friendships in my life because I found that when I did I would get burned. I was always worried that if I didn't find my steady group in high school, I would never find it at all. I never thought that I would find those people in my junior year of college, but better late than never.
Finding your people is less than an easy task. It takes time, trust, and commitment. The process is long and stressful but worth it in the end. In the beginning, you may be timid. You regularly worry about if you will be invited or if you should tell them about some aspect of your life. Trust is a process. Eventually, if these friendships are real, trust comes with ease. You feel the need to tell them all the important things in your life. You feel comfortable being emotionally vulnerable in front of them. They become the people who know everything and anything about your life, and that doesn't bother you.
You can find these friendships in the most unlikely people and in the most unlikely places. You may find them in a class, or a bar, or a coffee shop. They may be people that you have very little in common with, but find yourselves inseparable, or "attached at the hip" as my best friend and I like to say.
Your people are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you are happy, to put a smile on your face. Whether that's sitting in your bed watching your favorite episode of New Girl, walking to go get ice cream on an extremely rare warm day, or meeting at your favorite coffee shop to cram for an exam, they will go the extra mile for you.
As a junior in college, I value the friendships I have made in this town to an extreme. Soon we will all go our separate ways. Some this year and some the next. Soon it will be the last time we close our favorite bar. The bar that most definitely brought us our favorite memories. We will have our last meal together. We will have our last drive around the back roads of Athens, Ohio. When you find your people, you'll know. A song will play on the radio and it will bring you back to a certain person, or moment, or place and it will just make you smile.
To my people: you saved me. You saved me from thinking that I wasn't worthy of true friendship. You showed me what true friendship is. Thank you for being a shoulder for me to cry on (literally), dealing with my sarcastic humor, and always being down for a "chill" night out. Thank you for always putting a smile on my face and making me laugh until my stomach hurts.
Go out and find your people. Cherish your people. "There is nothing on this earth to be prized more than true friendship."- Thomas Aquinas.
