Friendships don't seem to be something that a lot of people take seriously. People love to flaunt friendships on Instagram with "happy birthday" posts but then will hardly ever talk in person. Teenage girls will backstab their "best friends." People will ditch their friend group as soon as they get into a relationship. And how many stories have you heard about the groom cheating with the maid of honor?
The point is, this isn't friendship.
True friends are the people who you know you'll always have. They're the ones where you know that the relationship is real. How do you know that it's genuine?
The tiny little moments.
These tiny little moments are the things that prove someone's love for you, and your love for them.
When I love, I love hard. And over the years, I've learned to surround myself with people who feel the same way.Here are just a few of the little moments I've shared with my friends that made me appreciate just how lucky I am to have something so real:
Friendship is someone driving 25 minutes to bring you ice cream after you broke up with your boyfriend.
Friendship is saying to your college friends, "I can't wait to tell my friends at home all about you!"
Friendship is loving explaining the story behind every picture of you and your friends hanging up in your room.
Friendship is teaching someone who doesn't like hugs to learn to love them.
Friendship is creating an enormous list of '80s teen movies to watch.
Friendship is shopping for matching tops to wear at parties.
Friendship is sending someone a care package with their favorite things and a note that says "because boys are trash."
Friendship is then crying in the middle of campus while opening the package.
Friendship is screaming on the phone because you're so mad about how a boy is treating your friend.
Friendship is referring to yourselves as "the Struggle Bus" because you never seem to get anywhere on time.
Friendship is checking your mailbox every day to see if you got a letter from your friend at bootcamp.
Friendship is 5-way FaceTime calls.
Friendship is crying because your friend is sad and you can't be there to hug her.
Friendship is someone else's parents texting you to see how you're doing in college.
Friendship is a "did you get home okay?" text.
Friendship is singing to show tunes in the car at the top of your lungs.
Friendship is surprise birthday breakfast dates.
Friendship is getting smoothies and buying coordinating bracelets.
Friendship is a random message that says "Did you know that your school is the 24th most haunted university?!".
Friendship is endless rants on the car ride home.
Friendship is playing on the elementary school playground when you should be in study hall.
Friendship is Snapchat memories and endless money spent on printing out pictures. It's inside jokes and group chats that are never silent for long. It's all squeezing into a minivan and blaring throwback Jonas Brothers songs. It's teasing and laughter and tears and goodbyes and looking forward to when you'll see each other again.
Friendship is saying "I love you" and knowing that it'll never change.
Friendship isn't one social media post or a "happy birthday" in passing, or one big superficial thing you feel you need to show off to the whole wide world.
Friendship is all the tiny little things that make you realize how lucky you are to have something so real.
