There was a time when your best friend didn't know you. When your siblings hadn't met you. Or even when you were just an idea to your parents. It's funny how we all start out as strangers, and those strangers become your life.

Right now I have so many people in my life I cannot remember, or even imagine, living without. People become so integral to life and to who you are, but I think we often take these relationships for granted. Where would I be now if I had never met my best friend? What would my life be like if I had decided to go to a different school? It would be drastically different, which is scary to think about. I think we often live life disregarding the power we have to change it, and it's a considerable power. As kids, we entered school knowing no one but the parents who dropped us off, but we sat down at tables and said hi to another little girl or boy and those people became our childhood. Maybe they are still in your life today.

We all have people we are comfortable with. The people we can tell anything to or be anyone with. Maybe this is a parent, a sibling, a boyfriend or girlfriend, or even just a good old fashioned best friend. Regardless of who they are, they started out as strangers but became the most important people in our lives.

Maybe you are one of those people who believe in fate. You believe meeting your best friend was supposed to happen, or maybe you think, no, I did that. I created that relationship. Regardless of those beliefs, know that we can change our lives based on the people we allow in it.

Go start a conversation with that person you saw reading your favorite book or who sat next to you in class. Take a leap and develop pre-existing relationships that might seem surface-level but could turn into the most significant relationship in your life. Yes, we all start out as strangers, but we have the power to change that.