I don't care how cliche it sounds, but I truly believe that to be happy in this life you need to have friends who accept you for who you are. it's a cliche because it's true. I've been lucky in my friendships, in that I had a solid group of friends in high school and another solid group in college, and we work because we are all extremely weird in our own ways.

In high school, it was the band geeks. We knew it, we embraced it, and that band room became a place of love and family. I could speak with little to no filter, releasing the beast that is nerd Amber into the world. They were the people that would sit in a crappy Dairy Queen talking about musicals until 2am, or get really excited about playing "Never Gonna Give You Up" at the next concert. It's a place where nerds can be their nerdiest selves, and everyone loves you more for it.

Those were, and some still are, the friends that let me be exactly who I wanted to be, even in the terribly awkward years we call high school. And then I was lucky enough to find the same kind of people in college.