It's no secret that in all of our lives, we all have to face things that are less than pleasant. We all know that we're bound to see it in our lifetimes, but that doesn't really make it any less hard. There's a crazy amount of confusion, frustration, and really just a lot of hurt. Despite all of that, I started to see something pretty cool in the aftermath. Even though I felt like I didn't really feel as though I deserved to have anyone to talk to, I had a set of amazing friends who knew I was hurting, and who stuck by me even though I might not have been the most fun friend to them.

I will never be able to explain how grateful I am for them in every way. There were so many times where I can't imagine how often they were getting annoyed with the way I was acting or just plain tired of how angry I was all the time. Even though I was probably driving them crazy more often than not, they were always still right there, letting me vent to them about the same thing for the ten-thousandth time. Looking back, I'm sure I owe them hundreds of hours of listening if they ever felt the need to cash in.

Beyond listening to all of my crazy antics, they were always there to either back up whatever was bothering me. Most of the time I can guarantee you they didn't care about what was bothering me, but they have always been able to throw in enough humor to at least make me feel like they agreed enough to find something clever to say about it. Even though I know they probably spent a few times teasing me about overreacting, which I did often, they always made sure that I knew that even if I was going a little overboard at times, they would always be there to listen.

In so many ways throughout these friendships, I have been so unbelievably hard to love, but they chose to ignore that piece of me. They still texted me to see how I was doing, or invited me to movie nights (most of which we talked through anyway). They helped me to rush through my homework when I didn't feel like getting it done the night before, they let me drag them on hikes they didn't want to go on, and let me make the plans even if they weren't totally hyped about the specific plan I was making that day.

I can very honestly tell you that I have been given a set of friends that I certainly never deserved. Without all of the movie nights, days where we played cards for hours at a time, and times that we talked way past when we had all planned on going home, I owe these guys so much.

So, to my "nerd herd", thank you for everything. I couldn't have done it without you guys.