Last night I got a text asking to submit an article for this week. I spent all this morning trying to brainstorm about ideas I felt were important to talk about. But then I remembered a new friend I have made, who has let me accept myself for who I am. This person is someone I often walk past on a daily basis but have not had the honor to be friendly with.
This is an article and a letter that goes out to a dear classmate who I couldn't be more thankful to have in my life. I have always struggled to make friends because I wasn't as outgoing and confrontative (if that's a word, but you know what I mean). I am not someone who is really good at going up to people and being the first to start a conversation. She and I met through class, basically being our usual introvert selves.
After hanging out with her and talking about previous issues I have had with friends, I finally felt like it wasn't something I was doing. Nothing about who I am makes me at fault for not finding the "right" friends that fit who I am. I have always been seen as the quiet one in a friend group or asked about why I don't talk that much. But hanging out with her, she never asked me anything like that but rather we would sit in class and be quiet together.
Another girl I would like to thank is a girl who is just a little bit more like who I am. A girl who also would rather get through a lecture instead of stopping to have class discussions or the class getting off topic because the professor said something funny. A girl who feels the same way about wanting to stay home instead of living in a college dorm room. Or the sound of "presentation" making us freak out and hope we aren't the one's talking.
Sitting next to these two girls makes me not feel so alone and crazy anymore. I wasn't exactly feeling crazy, but feeling like the reason I had a hard time making friends was because being myself was too quiet and reserved for anyone to handle. That because I wanted to keep to myself and not join in with a partner that there was something wrong with me. Or that because I have few friends means that I might have something secretive about me that causes me to not be popular.
Overall, these girls make up for people making assumptions and questioning me for being different. They make me feel that wanting to come back home, sit in my bed and read a book was normal and that I should love that about myself. Or that if I just wanted to stay in and watch "Gilmore Girls", they would come and join me (or maybe just snap chat about it, because going out isn't our thing).
