As I am getting through the week trying to figure out what I want to write about this week, I realize National Best Friend Day has come and gone. I start to think about my best friends that I have made this year and our times together. These girls have become like sisters to me. They know my whole life and accept me, flaws and all. When I first met them, we all sat around and told our complete life stories to each other. I had only known these girls for maybe a week! I had never experienced anything like it. I was nervous, scared, full of anxiety and I thought to myself, “What if these girls don’t like me?” and, “Will they still want to be my friend after they learn all about my life?”
Before I arrived at college, I considered myself to have lived a full, happy life so far. I mean, I had tons of friends, had won homecoming queen and was president of my class. This all sounds great, but I cared so much about what other people thought about me. I didn’t open up to people and liked to hold everything into a shell. Don’t get me wrong, I am an extremely friendly person, but I kept a lot of things about myself private. I didn’t realize it then but I have come to recognize it now. Once summer after my senior year came, I started to become conscious of the fact that my life was not as happy as I thought it was. I felt that my life was missing something. I prayed that God would help me fill this hole and let me start over, that my life could feel whole again. Now that freshman year of college is over, I realize that God answered my prayers and then some. He sent me my four best friends and all the other great people that I have met this year. They have taught me that it’s okay be exactly who you are and to not care what other people think. I have come to embrace myself and it has made me a much happier person, inside and out. They also pushed me in my faith and I have grown closer to God because of them. I can talk someone’s ear off if they’re willing to listen about how much God has changed my life, and luckily instead-- you get to read this!
In today’s generation, people want to be considered cool by being like everyone else, or normal. Well, I stand here today (or rather sit at my computer), and say that it is okay to be yourself and open up. Let people know who you really are and if they can’t accept that, then they weren’t meant to be your friend in the first place. I now believe that the more you show who you really are on the inside, the more happiness that will come into your life. According to Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D., “Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.” This seems very logical to me, therefore being the reason I have changed my state of mind. I do my best to no longer care what my peers may think or say about who I am as a person. It’s okay to be weird and silly sometimes and if they are true friends, then they should join in with you! I am who I am and that is not going to change!
So with all this being said, I challenge you to open up, tell someone your story. See what it’s like to have people that will love you regardless of the mistakes you have made in your life. Find people who will be goofy and crazy with you. Friends that will stay up until the wee hours of the night to help you sort out troubles in your life or be a shoulder to cry on. These kind of people, ones like the friends I have met, are the ones you want to keep. These girls will be my best friends for the rest of my life and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to meet friends like this. God is good all the time and all the time God is good.
